God of Comfort,
send your Spirit to encompass all those whose lives
are torn apart by violence and death in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon.
You are the Advocate of the oppressed
and the One whose eye is on the sparrow.
Let arms reach out in healing, rather than aggression.
Let hearts mourn rather than militarize.

God of Justice,
give strength to those whose long work for a just peace
might seem fruitless now. Strengthen their resolve.
Do not let them feel alone. Show us how to support their work
and bolster their courage. Guide religious leaders to model
unity and reconciliation across lines of division.
Guide political leaders to listen with their hearts as they seek peace and pursue it.
Help all people choose the rigorous path of just peace and disavow violence.

God of Love,
we lift up Palestine, Israel and Lebanon — its people, its land, its creatures.
War is a monster that consumes everything in its path.
Peace is a gift shared at meals of memory with Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
Let us burn incense, not children. Let us break bread, not bodies.
Let us plant olive groves, not cemeteries.
We beg for love and compassion to prevail
on all your holy mountains.

God of Hope,
we lift up the cities of the region: Gaza City and Tel Aviv,
Ramallah and Ashkelon, Deir El Balah and Sderot,
so long divided, yet so filled with life and creativity.
Come again to breathe peace on your peoples
that all may recognize you.

God of Mercy,
even now work on the hearts of politicians and combatants
to choose life over death, reconciliation over retaliation,
restoration over destruction, that all your people might
live in peace and unafraid.

God of the Nations,
let not one more child or elder be sacrificed on altars of political expediency.
Keep safe all people from unjust leaders who would exploit
vulnerability for their own distorted ends.
Give wise discernment to those making decisions to pursue peace.
Provide them insight into fostering wellbeing, freedom, and thriving for all.
Teach all of us to resolve injustices with righteousness, not rockets.
Guard our hearts against retaliation, and give us hearts for love alone.

Strengthen our faith in you, O God of All Flesh,
even when we don’t have clear answers,
so that we may still offer ourselves non-violently
for the cause of peace.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Amen.

Reprinted with permission of Sojourners magazine (sojo.net) All rights reserved. https://sojo.net/articles/prayer-peace-israel-and-palestine

Some may like this prayer. Some may like parts of it. How would you write it on your heart?

And now I invite those who went to Mass over the weekend to go back to the readings and consider them through the lens of Church and world. For the faithful, identity is found and grown in relationships and in community. The ‘other’ cannot be discarded as less than me.

The church is in the first instance a community and therefore an experience of togetherness, ‘of being called by God to be and do something together that nobody, not even small groups, can accomplish alone.’

Right now, the world needs us – the faithful – to be true to our nature as a sacrament of unity with God and all our brothers and sisters, a sign and instrument in the world, of the reign of God’s love and peace.

Let us pray and let us get on with it. A week of possibilities lies before us.

Diocesan Liturgy Council Update

To keep abreast of the work of the Diocesan Liturgy Council, click on the link and then the ‘Council News’ drop-down menu, where you will find the latest meeting Report.

Acknowledgements

Quote: Mary M McGlone. Scripture Reflection, Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. Nation Catholic reporter: Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: I am because we are | National Catholic Reporter  (ncronline.org)

Image: Unsplash

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