“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)

The third step of the “Way of the Heart” is entitled, “In a broken world” and considers the fallen state of creation and our role in repairing what was lost.

God created the world and saw that it was “good.” However, death and sin entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s word, doubting his love for them. By their action of disobedience, the world that God created “good” would now become “broken,” tainted by that Original Sin. 

We can see the brokenness all around us. As our as our documents guiding the recreation of the PWPN point out, “Life and love are often suffocated by violence and selfishness. The weak and vulnerable are crushed by the boots of the powerful. Natural resources are depleted. There is too much sadness and loneliness.”

However, there is good news.

Even though we sometimes walk away from the Lord and his plan for us, he is constantly asking us to return to him. There is a pathway that we can walk to return to the arms of our loving and merciful Father. For the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, it is a pathway of the heart, recognizing the many injustices in the world and responding, in whatever way that we can, to help repair the damage.

This is our mission and the mission of the Church here on earth. We must pray and work together so that God’s love can shine through us and in us. God can shatter our darkness, repair what is broken, but we must cooperate with him and his mission. We are his instruments and it is our duty to let him work through us.

Let us stop for a moment and consider ways we can help conquer the brokenness in the world with God’s love and mercy.