Review: Novena in Time of War

My initial assumptions concerning Novena in Time of War: Soul-Searching Prayers & Meditations  were that it would be a strictly pacifist book, a book that lead one to consider the horrors of war and pushed one into praying that war would cease.

Jim
Melchiorre’s thought provoking prayers and meditation do push you to consider the irrationality and awfulness of war, yet what Melchiorre does best is push his prayer-minded audience to consider the "other," which for most of those who pray through this book are Iraqis,
Afghanis, foreign soldiers, and "terrorists."

Melchiorre refuses to cave in to tribalism, and this is the defining theme that weaves itself through the nine sets of prayers and meditations (for those who do not know, a novena is a collection of nine prayers and devotions on a certain theme—it’s okay, I didn’t know either until I googled the term). Melchiorre pulls together the strands of thought and prayer on war, violence, patriotism, tribalism, hatred, the "other," in his final meditation, "Hating War, Not Warriors."

As I have grown into a strict pacifism over the past few years I believe I have hated the warrior as an instrument of war—like a missile or bomb. Melchiorre, as both a pacifist and a veteran, refuses to confuse warriors (here soldiers, freedom fighters, and "insurgents") with
weapons or war.

Melchiorre guides his praying audience into the conflict that arises with the irrationality of war and encourages those who pray to consider the humanity of the situation and the lives of all who are affected by war.

I was greatly encouraged to be guided in prayer for Iraqi and America soldiers at the same time, to pray for the families of those who die in the atrocity of war—even the families of "insurgents" and "terrorists" who are never considered to be affected by war. We are all humans, and we would all be hurt by the loss of a loved one.

What is made apparent in these collected prayers is that we are all humans, made in God’s image, and therefore all persons called to be God’s children. We are reminded that God has formed all of us in our mother’s womb—Iraqi, Afghani, and American alike. We are all affected by the sin of war, the evil that seeps into this world since the fall, especially since the first brother killed brother.

And at the end, we are not left feeling good about the world, or feeling like the world is beyond repair. Melchiorre is too grounded and realistic to speak in extremes of utopia or dysutopia. Instead, we are called to action, to

"picture a world where war is not an option. Think of all the human problems and disputes that would still exist that would need to be resolved another way. Pray to God that you might play a part in that new world." (80)

May we all consider how we can navigate the problems and disputes of our lives without creating a war as we pray that our own nations do the same.