Article May 27, 1991 Issue

Prayer in the midst of civil unrest

Is it impossible to be calm when there is turmoil all around? How can peace be restored for ourselves and for our community?

Dolores E. P. Rodriguez

[Original in Spanish]

For some years there had been warnings that the economy of my country would experience hyperinflation and its calamitous consequences. My husband had been without work until he decided to begin his own business. We started a charming business in our area, in the center of the city on a corner bordered by two commercial streets.

One morning during the first week, when I was at the business, I saw people running. The neighboring stores were closing their shades. The people passing by told us to close ours too because rioters were looting stores and destroying everything they found in their way. I thought, "Is this one of the consequences of hyperinflation?" If so, there was another influence operating right there in that community—the prayer of the members of our branch Church of Christ, Scientist. Our church—perhaps along with many other residents of our community—was praying to bring healing to the unrest our country was going through. That leavening influence, I reasoned, was operating to lessen the confusion and anxiety. Neither the fear expressed by the business people nor that expressed by the public was beyond the healing power of divine Love, God.

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