Prayer for the migrants at the Church of St Ignatius Loyola

On 11/14, the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola organized an interfaith prayer for 20,000 NYC new migrants. The Chan Meditation Center (CMC) was invited to the refugee prayer service. On behalf of CMC, CMC Director Ven. Chang Hwa shared her encouragement and prayer to these refugees:

"First of all, I would like to thank the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola for inviting me here for this meaningful interfaith prayer for our city's new friends. I am here to represent the Chan Meditation Center of Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association, to share our sincere blessing to you all.

As we know, every one of us has ups and downs in life. From Buddhist philosophy, many causes and conditions make it happen this way, but not that way. Even though we may not know the reason, we can make it meaningful. 

Our late Master Sheng Yen, after receiving his Ph.D. in Japan, he came to NY in 1970s. Later, he became homeless monk at the Central Park. He had no temple, no money, no families, and he was an immigrant with limited English ability. But he enriched his life with his faith.  
In 1998, he was selected by the Commonwealth magazine as one of the 50 most influential people in Taiwan in the past 400 years. In the year of 2000, he was invited by the Interfaith Center to make a keynote speech at the 'Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders' held at the UN headquarters to promote "Spiritual Environmentalism."

Poverty and Social Justice are issues to be solved, and spiritual poverty is also problem we all need to face. Let's stick with our faith and not giving up, not giving up loving each other.

So, let's pray:
Let us fill our hearts with our own compassion – towards ourselves and towards all living beings.
Let us pray that all living beings realize that they are all brothers and sisters, all nourished from the same source of life. 
May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings be content.
May all beings be free.
May Guanyin bless all of us!"
 
by CMC Director, Ven. Chang Hwa