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4/27/2018

Prayer for A World Peace Community

Director’s Reflection

Dear Companions on the Journey,

Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, has written this Prayer for A World Peace Community:

GOD EVER STRONG AND GENTLE, you have told us ‘Vengeance is mine.’ Save us from ourselves, save us from the vengeance in our hearts and the acid in our souls.

Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt, to punish as we have been punished, to terrorize as we have been terrorized.

Give us the strength it takes to listen rather than to judge, to trust rather than to fear, to try again and again to make peace even when peace eludes us.

WE ASK, O GOD, FOR THE GRACE TO BE OUR BEST SELVES. We ask for the vision to be builders of the human community rather than its destroyers. We ask for the humility as a people to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.

We ask for the love it takes to bequeath to our children to become more than the failures of our making. We ask for the heart it takes to care for all the peoples of Israel and Palestine — Jews, Muslims and other Christians – as well as for ourselves.

GIVE US THE DEPTH OF SOUL, O GOD, to constrain our might, to resist the temptations of power, to refuse to attack the attackable, to understand that vengeance begets violence, and to bring peace – not war – wherever we go.

For you, O God, have been merciful to us. For You, O God, have been patient with us. For You, O God, have been gracious to us.

And so may we be merciful and patient and gracious and trusting with these others whom you also love.

This we ask through Jesus, the One without vengeance in his heart. This we ask forever and ever. Amen.

What do you think?

And let us pray for/with one another.

Michael

The Paulist Center