Dear Lord, Please pour your love onto a hurting world
Whether it’s pain or depression
Or just pure happiness and bliss
Let peace rule in our lives, families, lands, nations and universe
We desire and pray
The one voice that everyone has been waiting for
Only love and peace
That will change the world.
Lord, Whisper to us the one voice
“You shall go out in joy and be led back in peace.” (Isaiah 55:12) Amen.
Out of the depth of chaos,
We cry to you, o Lord, God of peace,
Out of the depth of suffering,
We cry to you, o Lord, God of mercy,
Out of the depth of fear,
We cry to you, o Lord, God of love.
Loving God, hear our voice
As we call for peace in our confused world.
Enlighten our mind
To learn your manners of making peace,
To console those
Who suffer for justice.
Loving God, we are asking:
Send your Holy Spirit
To guide us into the journey of peace
Which you have started –
A peace that this world cannot give. Amen
Based on a prayer by Nazik Khalid Matty
Open my heart, O God, that I may be open in love to each person I encounter.
Just as Jesus welcomed and ate with persons considered sinners by society,
help me to offer each person respect, especially when my opinions differ from theirs.
Open me to see value in cultures and to learn from different ways of doing things.
Help me never to judge or condemn others but give me the grace of empathy
and help me to focus on understanding and compassion for all I meet.
For humans all these are difficult things, but with your grace I can grow into practicing them.
Amen.
Prayer for the Decade of Nonviolence
I bow to the sacred in all creation.
May my spirit fill the world with beauty and wonder.
May my mind seek truth with humility and openness.
May my heart forgive without limit.
May my love for friend, enemy, and outcast be without measure.
May my needs be few and my living simple.
May my actions bear witness to the suffering of others.
May my hands never harm a living being.
May my steps stay on the journey of justice.
May my tongue speak for those who are poor, without fear of the powerful.
May my prayers rise with patient discontent until no child is hungry.
May my life's work be a passion for peace and nonviolence.
May my soul rejoice in the present moment.
May my imagination overcome death and despair with new possibility.
And may I risk reputation, comfort, and security to bring this hope to the children.
- Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB
ULAF Region
We pray for the power to be gentle; the strength to be forgiving; the patience to understand; and the endurance to accept the consequences of holding on to what we believe to be right.
God of infinite mercy and kindness, with a grateful heart we invoke you today.
May your voice resonate in the hearts of all men and women, when you call them to follow the path of reconciliation and peace and to be merciful like you.
Lord, you address words of peace to your people and to all who convert their hearts to you. Help us break down the walls of hostility and division and build together a world of justice and solidarity.
We entrust to you the young people. In their hearts they have hopes for a brighter future; strengthen their decision to be men and women of peace and heralds of new hope for their people.
Father, you make peace germinate on earth. We pray to you, so that the civil authorities strive to satisfy the just hopes of their people and promote actions for justice and peace. Compel them to work generously for the common good and to respect the dignity of every person and grant them wisdom and perseverance.
Lord of Heaven and Earth, Creator of the one human family, we pray to you for the followers of all religions. May they look for your will in prayer, in the purity of heart, and in practices of love.
Merciful Father, may all believers find the courage to forgive one another, so that the wounds of the past may be healed and not be a pretext for further suffering in the present.
To the Mother of Jesus, the ever-blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe,
We ask for her intercession; may she help us hear what Jesus wants us to do at this time in history. May following his example make us be attentive to discover the will of God.
That we all, with one heart and one mind, work together so that the world can be a true home for all. Amen.
Peace and all good!
Based on a prayer by Pope St. John Paul II