Get our your shovels and pray!

Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the First 100 Days in presidential office to launch major governmental changes, including the New Deal and protections against economic collapse. Seldom are a U.S. President's First 100 Days so productive. Lyndon Baines Johnson also introduced a prodigious amount of legislation in the First 100 Days, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and important anti-poverty legislation.

This country is entering the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Crises offer opportunities for transformation; indeed, they can require it. Neither Obama nor any individual, alone, can envision a transformed nation, or world, much less actualize it. Now is surely the time for us to pray for changes we care about and allow ourselves to be transformed by our prayers. Are we willing to change how we live--how we consume resources and our role in the global economy and in global politics?

There is a legendary story of St. Francis in which he was asked by a bishop why his gardens were so beautiful. Francis replied, "Prayer." The bishop inquired, "Do you mean you pray and God takes care of your gardens?" "No," Francis answered, "I pray with a hoe."

I urge you, now, to get out your shovels, hoes, and pray the future together.

January 20, 2009 is Day One.