good morning everybody (applause) thank you thank you thank you very much pleaseplease have a seat thank you so much well good morning everybody
welcome to the white house andwelcome to our annual easter prayer breakfast as alwayswe are blessed to be joined by so many good friends fromaround the country we'vegotdistinguished guests we've got faithleaders members of my administration who are hereand i will once again resist the temptationto preach to preachers (laughter) it never worksout well i am reminded of the admonition from the bookof romans do not claim to bewiser than you are (laughter) so this morning i want to offer some very brief reflections aswe startthis easter season
but as i was preparing myremarks something intervened yesterday and so i want to justdevote a few words about yesterday's tragedy inkansas this morning our prayers are withthepeople of overland park and we'restill learning the details but this much we know a gunmanopened fire at two jewish facilities a community center and a retirement home innocentpeople were killed their families were devastated and this violence has struck the heart ofthe jewish community in kansascity
two of the victims agrandfather and his teenage [grand] son attended the unitedmethodist churchof the resurrection which is led by our friend reverend adam hamiltonsome of you may know that during myinauguration reverend hamilton delivered the sermonat the prayer service atthe national cathedral and i wasgrateful for his presence and hiswords he joined us at our breakfast last year and at the easter service for palm sunday lastnight he had to breakthis terrible news to his congregation
that this occurred now as jewswere preparing to celebrate passover as christians wereobserving palm sundaymakes this tragedy all the more painful and today as passoverbegins we're seeing a number of synagogues andjewish community centers take addedsecurity precautions nobody should have to worry about theirsecurity when gathering withtheir fellow believers no one should ever have to fear for theirsafety when they go to pray
and as a government we're goingto provide whatever assistance is needed to support theinvestigation as americans we not only need to open ourhearts to the families of the victimswe've got to stand united against thiskind of terrible violence which has no place in oursociety and we have to keep coming together acrossfaiths to combat the ignorance andintolerance including antisemitism thatcan lead to hatred and to violence because we'reall children of god we're all made in his image all worthy ofhis love and dignity and we seewhathappens around the world when this kind of religiousbased or tinged violencecan rear itsugly head it's got no placein our society
so this easter week of course werecognize that there's a lot of pain and a lot of sin and alot of tragedy inthis world but we're also overwhelmed by the grace of an awesome god we'rereminded how he loves us so deeplythat he gave his only begotten son so that we might livethrough him and in these holy days we recall all thatjesus endured for us the scorn of thecrowds and the pain of thecrucifixion in our christian religious tradition we celebrate theglory of theresurrection all so that we might be forgiven of our sins and grantedeverlastinglife
and more than 2000 years laterit inspires us still we are drawn tohis timeless teachingschallenged to be worthy of his sacrifice to emulate asbest we can his eternal example tolove one another just as he loves us and of course we're always reminded each andevery daythat we fall short of that example and none of us are free from sin but we look to his life andstriveknowing that if we love one another god lives in us and his love isperfected in us
i'll tell you i felt this spiritwhen i had the great honor of meeting his holiness popefrancisrecently i think it's fair to say thatthose of us of the christian faith regardless of ourdenomination have beentouched and moved by pope francis nowsome of it is his words his message of justice and inclusion especially forthe poor and the outcast he implores ustosee the inherent dignity in each human being but it's also his deeds simple yet profoundhugging the homeless man and washing the feet of somebody who normallyordinary folkswould just pass by on the street he reminds us that all of us no matter whatour station havean obligation to live righteously and that we all have anobligation to live humblybecausethat's in fact the example that we profess to follow
so i had a wonderful conversationwith pope francis mostly about the imperatives ofaddressing poverty andinequality and i invited him to come tothe united states and isincerely hope he will when we exchanged gifts he gave me a copy ofhis inspiring writings the joy of the gospel and there is a passage that speaks to ustoday christ's resurrectionhewrites is not an event of the past it contains a vital power which haspermeated this worldand he addsjesus did not rise in vain may wenever remain on the sidelines of this march ofliving hope
so this morning my main messageis just to say thank you to all of you because you don'tremain on thesidelines i want to thank you for yourministries for your good works for themarching you do for justice anddignity and inclusion for the ministries that all of you attendto and havehelped organize throughout your communities each and every day to feedthehungry and house the homeless and educate children who so desperately need aneducation have made a difference inso many different ways not only here in the united states butoverseas aswell and that includes a cause close tomy heart my brother's keeper an initiativethat we recently launched to makesure that more boys and young men of color can overcomethe odds and achievetheir dreams
and we're joined by several faithleaders who are doing outstanding work in this areamentoring and helping youngmen in tough neighborhoods we're alsojoined by some of theseyoung men who are working hard and trying to be goodstudents and good sons and goodcitizens and i want to say to each of those young men here we're proud of youand we expecta lot of you and we'regoing to make sure that we're there for you so that you then in turn willbethere for the next generation of young men
and i mention all this because ofall of our many partners for my brother's keeper it's clergylike you and yourcongregations that can play a special role to be that spiritual andethicalfoundation that rock that so many young men need in their lives
so i want to thank all of you whoare already involved i invite those whoare not to get moreinformation see if you can join in this effort as brothersand sisters in christ who never tire ofdoing good
in closing i'll just recall thatold prayer that i think more than one preacher has invoked atthe pulpit lord fill my mouth with worthwhile stuffand nudge me when i've said enough (laughter) the almighty isnudging me i thank you for joining usthis morning of prayer iwish you all ablessed holy week and easter and i'd like to invite my friend joel huntertodeliver the opening prayer come on upjoel (applause)
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