Ten Days in May: Day 1

A Prayer for World Peace
by Joan D. Chittister, OSB

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 who you also love.

This we ask through, Jesus,

the one without vengeance in his heart.

This we ask forever and ever.

Amen.