On August 6th, Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, where Jesus appeared to three apostles in dazzling glory. We also remember another event, this one similarly blinding by its light, yet devastating in its consequences and human in origin: the bombing of Hiroshima. Let us remember to say a prayer for peace this day, and every day.
Prayer for World Peace
Great God who has told us, "Vengeance is mine,'
save us from ourselves,
save us from the vengeance in our hearts,
and the acid in our souls.
Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt,
to punish as we have been punished,
to terrorize as we have been terrorized.
Give us the strength it takes to listen rather than to judge,
to trust rather than to fear, to try again and again
to make peace even when peace eludes us.
We ask, O God, for the grace to be our best selves.
We ask for the vision to be builders of the human community,
rather than its destroyers.
We ask for the humility as a people
to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.
We ask for the love it takes to bequeath to the children of the world to come
more than the failures of our own making.
We ask for the heart it takes to care for all the peoples
of Afghanistan and Iraq, of Palestine and Israel
as well as for ourselves.
Give us the depth of soul, O God, to constrain our might,
to resist the temptations of power, to refuse to attack the attackable,
to understand that vengeance begets violence,
and to bring peace -- not war -- wherever we go.
For You, O God, have been merciful to us.
For You, O God, have been patient with us.
For You, O God, have been gracious to us.
And so may we be merciful and patient and gracious and trusting
with these others whom you also love.
This we ask through Jesus, the one without vengeance in his heart.
This we ask forever and ever. Amen.
(Prayer for World Peace, Sr. Joan Chittister, Benedictine Sisters of Erie)
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