Section:
prayers
January 15
Environment:
For three days before this prayer service each sister can place peace /nonviolent symbols in a central place for all to contemplate. This activity will be the focus of the faith sharing in the prayer service.
Hymn Suggestions:
We Are Called (Haas)
Bring Forth The Kingdom (Haugen)
Anthem (Conry)
Reconciling Creation (Likovich, Roberts)
Call To Prayer:
Each sister will take a few moments of silence to find her center.
We gather this day to remember Martin Luther King, Jr. who gave his life for the Christian values of nonviolence, peace, and acceptance of all races. Jesus himself gave this gift of peace to His apostles to share with all and He asks us as His followers to do the same in our personal, as well as communal lives. In this spirit let us pray...
Psalm Suggestions:
37:1-9; 46; 92.
Reading Suggestions:
Isaiah 45:15-25; 1 Corinthians 13; Tobit 13:18
Faith Sharing:
In what ways has Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement impacted your life?
The leader invites the sisters to share their peace/nonviolent symbols from the prayer table.
Gospel Canticle Antiphon:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.
Intercessions:
On this day, we remember the many ways that we have discriminated against so many people. We confess our need to turn away from the sin of our prejudice, to turn toward the God of all people. This day we pray for those who have suffered oppression, of any kind.
Response: In your mercy, heal us.
For open eyes to see others as our sisters and brothers, we pray...
For all who have suffered persecution because of their race, faith, or lack of education, we pray...
For all perpetrators of injustice, we pray...
For what else do we pray...
Our Father
Closing Prayer and Reflection:
To our most bitter opponents we say: We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey unjust laws, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.
From "Love Your Enemies" by Martin Luther King, Jr. Published by Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Institute Essay Series.
