Welcome, a Hymn to begin our time together
Prayer of St. Francis –
Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred let me bring your love. Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord, and where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace. Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness only light, and where there’s sadness every joy.
O Master, grant that I may never seek So much to be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, In giving of ourselves that we receive, And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
Opening Prayer
A Prayer for the World
Let the rain come and wash away the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory of the hurt, the neglect.
Let the sun come out and fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us wherever we are broken.
Let the sun burn away the fog so that we can see each other clearly. So that we can see beyond the labels, beyond the accents, gender, or skin color.
Let the warmth and brightness of the sun melt our selfishness
so that we can share the joys and feel the sorrows of our neighbors.
And let the light of the sun be so strong that we will see all people as our neighbors.
Let the earth nourished by rain; bring forth flowers to surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains touch our hearts to reach upward to heaven.
Amen
Psalm
Psalm 85
Cantor: Let us see your kindness, O Lord, grant us your salvation, O God.
ALL refrain: Let us see your kindness, O Lord, grant us your salvation, O God.
God, how I long for the peace you proclaim, your salvation and glory near to all who revere your name. refrain
Kindness and truth shall meet, justice and peace shall kiss; truth shall spring forth from the earth and justice looked down from heaven. refrain
You, yourself, will give these gifts; our land shall yield its fruit. Justice shall walk before you, and salvation along your way. refrain
Reading: A Muslim Prayer for Peace
Intercessions:
Response: In your mercy, hear us.
For leaders of nations, in whose hands are the decisions that make for peace, we pray…
For our brothers and sisters who live in situations of daily violence, we pray…
For all the world’s children, that they may one day know security and safety, we pray…
For ourselves, that we may be people of peace,
For victims of the war in Iraq, represented by the following names
Reading of names
we pray ….
A Prayer for the End to Violence
God of life, source of hope, the violence within our world, our communities, our families, in our very selves is destroying your creation. Make still the restless spirit within me that is self-seeking. Stir within my heart a renewed Spirit of reverence, respect and reconciliation.
Give me strength to break the cycle of violence by realizing that peace begins with me.
God of reconciliation, passionate for your whole creation, impel us to seek your guiding hand in leading us to forgiveness, pardon and peace.
Give us the courage to hear every story of every person with dignity and respect. Help us that we might work to remove every structure that provokes, promotes, and sustains violence. Give us the heart that holds a place for all those who oppose us or who call us enemy.
Help us by your grace in the ministry of reconciliation you have given us to do; to heal and to make whole. Let your word of reconciliation be in our mouths and in our hearts that your peace might be present to all.
Amen.
Prepared by Eileen Gannon, OP DLC NGO Representative to the UN
