A Franciscan Prayer for Peace

 

      Lord, make us instruments of your Peace.  In a world all too prone to violence and revenge, we commit ourselves to the Gospel values of mercy, justice, compassion, and love.

 

We will seek daily to promote forgiveness and healing in our hearts, our families, and our world. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; Where there is injury, let us cultivate peace.

 

Fear and distance prevent people from recognizing all as brothers and sisters; tensions lead to violence and mistrust; We will strive to honor the dignity that God places in each and every human person.

 

Grant that we may not seek to be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love. Our failure to understand the other can create exclusion in all its negative forms – racism, marginalization of those who are poor, sick, the immigrant; it can also create situations of domination, occupation, oppression and war.

 

We pledge to seek the way of solidarity, to create hearts, homes, and communities where all people will experience inclusion, hospitality, and understanding.

For it is in giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned and in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

 

Let us Pray:

Lord God, create in us:

-the Capacity to hear and understand the voices of those who suffer from every form of violence, injustice, and dehumanization;

 

-the Openness to receive and honor people from other cultures, languages, religious traditions, and geographical regions;

 

-the Creativity to explore new ways of communication and dialogue through

      music, poetry, performing arts, and the mass media;

 

-the Audacity to undertake the building of communities of forgiveness, healing,

      and reconciliation.

To God who is above all and in all are the glory and the honor. Amen