|
|
 |
At
a time of war and rumours of war
We come to you, God Creator.
You are the source of life and beauty and power.
Your Son Jesus is the way of faith and hope and love.
Your Spirit is the fire of love, the fount of wisdom, the bond of
unity.
You call us at all times to be people of the beatitudes, Witnesses
to the Gospel of peace and love and forgiveness.
You call us at this time, when war and rumours of war, weigh heavily
on the peoples of Iraq and the Middle East.
Their lives are already broken by suffering and violence.
We renew our acceptance to your call.
We promise to work:
To bring the light of the Gospel to those living in darkness,
To bring the hope of the Gospel to those living in despair,
To bring the healing of the Gospel to the lonely, the disadvantaged,
the marginalised,
And to bring the peace of the gospel to a divided world.
 |
| The
Bishop of Gloucester has circulated prayer suggestions to county
churches |
Lead
us from death to life
from falsehood to truth.
Lead us from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead us from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts,
our world, our universe.
Let us dream together
pray together,
work together,
to build one world
of peace and justice for all.
To you, Creator of nature and humanity,
In truth and beauty I pray:
Hear my voice, for it is the voice of victims of all wars and violence
among individuals and nations.
Hear my voice, for it is the voice of all children who suffer and
will suffer when people put their faith in weapons and war.
Hear my voice when I beg you to instil into the hearts of all human
beings the wisdom of peace, the strength of justice and the joy
of fellowship. Hear my voice, for I speak for the multitudes in
every country and every period of history who do not want war and
are ready to walk the road of peace.
Hear my voice, and grant insight and strength so that we may always
respond to hatred with love, to injustice with total dedication
to justice, to need with the sharing of self, to war with peace.
O God hear my voice, and grant unto the world your everlasting peace.
Prayer of Pope John Paul 11 at Hiroshima
FOR
VICTIMS OF WAR
O God
our Father, we bring to you in our prayers those who suffer in body
or mind as a result of war, or because of the fear and suspicions
that separate nation from nation, race from race, and people from
people.
We pray also for all refugees, and for those who have lost wife,
or husband, children or parents, livelihood, security, or home.
Have mercy upon them, O God, and prosper all who seek to Help them
in their need, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
O
God who brought us to birth,
and in whose arms we die:
in our grief and shock
contain and comfort us;
embrace us with your love
give us hope in our confusion,
and grace to let go into new life,
through Jesus Christ, Amen
Janet
Morley
A
MUSLIM PRAYER
In
the Name of God, the merciful Lord of mercy,
Praise be to God, the Lord of all being,
The merciful Lord of mercy.
You alone we serve; to You alone we come for aid.
Guide us in the straight path,
The path of those whom you have blessed.
A
JEWISH PRAYER
Come
let us go up to the mountain of God,
That we may walk the path of the Most High.
And we shall beat our swords into ploughshares
and our spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation
Neither shall they lean war any more,
And none shall be afraid.
Come, let us walk in God¹s guiding light.
PRAYER
OF ST FRANCIS
Lord,
make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light,
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that
I may not so much seek to be consoled
as to console.
To be understood as to understand.
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it is in dying that we are born to
eternal life. Amen.
|
