Prayers

for peace, community, patience and foresight

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggles and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. —from the Book of Common Prayer


Set a guard over my mouth, O lord;
keep watch over the door of my lips.
—Psalm 141: 3


God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at my end, and at my departing.
Pyson’s Horae
from 2000 Years of Prayer, compiled by Michael Counsell


The Peace Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument
of your 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.


For Peace
O God,
it is your will to hold both heaven and earth
in a single peace.
Let the design of your great love
shine on the waste of our wraths and sorrows,
And give peace to your Church,
peace among nations,
peace in our homes, and peace in our hearts.
—from A New Zealand Prayer Book



O God, we are one with you,
You have made us one with you.
You have taught us that if we are open to one another,
You dwell in us.
Help us to preserve this openness
and to fight for it with all our hearts.
Thomas Merton, from The Seven Storey Mountain

Lord, remember not only the men of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember rather the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have bourne be their forgiveness.
 —found on a scrap of wrapping paper
at the liberation of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp



In Times of Conflict
O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.



Forgive me, most gracious Lord and Father, if this day I have done or said anything to increase the pain of the world. Pardon the unkind word, the impatient gesture, the hard and selfish deed, the failure to show sympathy and kindly help where I had the opportunity, but missed it; and enable me so to live that I may daily do something to lessen the tide of human sorrow, and add to the sum of human happiness.
—F.B. Meyer
from Prayers for Peace



O Lord, set a watch upon my tongue; that I may never speak the cruel word which is untrue; or, being true, is not the whole truth; or, being the whole truth is merciless.
A Boy's Prayer Book