We see the pictures of death in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Congo, Nigeria, Sudan and South Sudan, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, Central African Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, etc… Below, we will review the Prayer To End Violence And Hatred, a prayer for the violence to stop in our cities and prayers in response to violence.
O Lord, you who abhor the bloodthirsty, rebuke the murderous, we pray, and break the sword of the violent, so that we might witness you as the God of Justice and the Lord of Righteousness under the light of the noonday sun. We pray this in the name of Christ our King. Amen.
Lord, we pray for our world to be free of violence and hatred. We pray that you will take our hand, and help us to love each other unconditionally. We pray that you will help us to see the good in each other, and not focus on the bad. We pray that you will give us the strength to overcome our fears, and the wisdom to understand that we are all connected and no one is separate from anyone else. In your name, Amen
Prayer For Victims of Violence
Wrap all and each of these your people in your love.
Let them hear: “Come to me you who suffer
and are burdened and I will give you rest.”
In these few months of 2014, we have heard the weapons and seen the blood of mass shootings and gang violence…
In Los Angeles and Detroit, Minneapolis and Miami, in Denver and in 138 other cities, towns and villages across our nation.
Wrap all and each of these your people in your love.
Let them hear: “Come to me you who suffer
and are burdened and I will give you rest.”
The bombs are exploding again in Gaza and Israel.
Wrap all and each of these your people in your love.
Let them hear: “Come to me you who suffer
and are burdened and I will give you rest.”
Violence continues hidden in so many homes and families around the world – and the abuse of innocent children….
Wrap all and each of these your people in your love.
Let them hear: “Come to me you who suffer
and are burdened and I will give you rest.”
In so many parts of the world today, the air is tense with
Waiting, uncertainty, insecurity.
From ravaged lands, destroyed by war, Your peoples lift their hands to you.
We pray for stillness, for justice, and for peace to come and to last. We fear that they will not.
Wrap all and each of these your people in your love.
Let them hear: “Come to me you who suffer
and are burdened and I will give you rest.”
O God, our maker, God of Abraham and Sarah, from which three great religions stemmed. We pray for peace.
We pray for peaceful existence between Israelis and Palestinians, Sunnis and Shiites, Muslims, Jews and Christians.
We pray negotiations which can reach the roots of historical conflicts.
We pray for a commitment to human rights by all sides and the protection of all lives.
We pray for effective international intervention to ensure justice for all sides.
We pray for humanitarian aid and rebuilding where destruction has occurred.
We pray for peace and for justice in our homes and on our city streets.
Wrap all and each of these your people in your love.
Let them hear: “Come to me you who suffer
and are burdened and I will give you rest.”
We pray for an end to violence, war and death.
Grant us this, peaceful God. Grant us a peaceful world.
Amen.
Prayer To End Violence And Hatred Catholic
Mend a quarrel
Search out a forgotten friend
Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust
Write a love letter
Share some treasures
Give a soft answer
Encourage youth
Manifest your loyalty in a word or deed
Keep a promise
Find the time
Forego a grudge
Forgive an enemy
Listen
Apologize if you were wrong
Try to understand
Flout envy
Examine your demands on others
Think first of someone else
Appreciate, be kind, be gentle
Laugh a little more.
Deserve confidence
Take up arms against malice
Decry complacency
Express your gratitude
Worship your God
Gladden the heart of a child
Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth
Speak your love
Speak it again
Speak it still again
Speak it still once again….
~ Author Unknown
Lead Us
Lord,
Lead us from death to life,
From falsehood to truth.
Lead us from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Let peace fill our hearts, our world and our universe.
Let us dream together, pray together and work together,
To build one world of peace and justice for all.
Author unknown
- it is thought to be either an adaptation of a Hindu prayer or of a hymn. The first time that it was known to be publicly spoken was by Mother Teresa in 1981.
Prayer for the Decade of Nonviolence
I bow to the sacred in all creation.
May my sprit fill the world with beauty and wonder.
May my mind seek truth with humility and openness.
May my heart forgive without limit.
May my love for friend, enemy, and outcast be without measure.
May my needs be few and my living simple.
May my actions bear witness to the suffereing of others.
May my hands never harm a living being.
May my steps stay on the journey of justice.
May my tongue speak for those who are poor without fear of the powerful.
May my prayers rise with patient discontent until no child is hungry.
May my life’s work be a passion for peace and nonviolence.
May my soul rejoice in the present moment.
May my imagination overcome death and despair with new possiblilty.
And may I risk reputation, comfort, and security to bring this hope to the children.
- Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB
A Prayer for Peace
We are moulded, each one of us,
in the image of God,
and within our souls there is a fingerprint
none can erase.
We pray for those who have no regard
for anyone but self,
who put no value on human life.
For nations and individuals who abuse and kill.
We are not called to be judge or jury,
but we are called to be agents of change,
and if the butterfly that flaps its wings
should be our attitude to others
then so be it, Lord,
and may the hurricane this generates
somewhere within the world
reach into the hearts and souls of those
for whom we pray, and reveal to them
how precious are those
for whom they have no love,
and how precious are they
who now bring tears to the eyes of God.
- John Birch
Prayer To Remove Hatred
A Prayer for World Peace, 1978
We pray for the power to be gentle;
the strength to be forgiving;
the patience to be understanding;
and the endurance to accept the consequences
of holding on to what we believe to be right.
May we put our trust in the power of good to overcome evil
and the power of love to overcome hatred.
We pray for the vision to see and the faith to believe
in a world emancipated from violence,
a new world where fear shall no longer lead men or women to commit injustice,
nor selfishness make them bring suffering to others.
Help us to devote our whole life and thought and energy
to the task of making peace,
praying always for the inspiration and the power
to fulfill the destiny for which we and all men and women were created.
Short Prayer For Gun Violence
- Author Unknown, Offered by Beth Amyot
Prayer for Serenity
O God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference;
living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
- Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
For Courage to Do Justice
O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others
Open my ears that I may hear their cries;
Open my heart so that they need not be without succor;
Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,
Nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
And use me to bring them to those places.
And so open my eyes and my ears
That I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee.
- Alan Paton, South Africa, United Methodist Hymnal #456
Prayer for Peace in the Middle East
God of mercy and compassion,
of grace and reconciliation,
pour your power upon all your children in the Middle East:
Jews, Muslims and Christians,
Palestinians and Israelis.
Let hatred be turned into love, fear to trust, despair to hope,
oppression to freedom, occupation to liberation,
that violent encounters may be replaced by loving embraces,
and peace and justice could be experienced by all.
- Reverend Said Ailabouni
Prayer for a World Where Hope Seems Dim
Dear God, the world seems so dark and foreboding.
Where are the signs of hope?
What are you calling us to do?
Wars, uprisings, displacements, hunger, poverty, and disease continue to claim victims by the millions around the world each year.
Our ears do not want to hear their stories and our eyes do not want to see their plight because the suffering and destruction is so massive and cruel.
In our hearts and minds there is a desire to help somehow, but the crisis seem so overwhelming that we shake our heads in dismay and we wonder what the point is for us even to attempt to be witnesses for healing and hope in this hellish morass.
We beg with the song writer to open our eyes that we may see glimpses of truth you have for us.
Help us to follow the path of Jesus, the Suffering Servant. Give us the courage to be willing to walk the path of depression and pain with the victims of injustice here at home as well as abroad.
Help us to seek ways to light candles of hope, however small, through our words, our deeds, and our prayers, to encourage our sisters and brothers to hold onto the faith in spite of the pain and suffering they are facing.
And help those of us who are among the fortunate ones, who have enough bread to eat, good health, and who live in relative peace, to open our heart to learn from our sisters and brothers who are living lives of grace and forgiveness in the horrid circumstances which surround them. O God, help us to light one candle rather than to curse the darkness.
We pray this in the name of Jesus, who knows what being a light in this dark world is all about.
- Larry Kehler, Mennonite Central Committee, Canada, 2009
Buddhist Prayer for Peace
May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses.
May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free.
May the powerless find power, and may people think of befriending one another.
May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wildernesses–the children, the aged, the unprotected–be guarded by beneficent celestials, and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood.
- Author Unknown
Baha’i Prayer for Peace
Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity.
Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech.
Be a lamp unto those who walk in darkness, and a home to the stranger.
Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring.
Be a breath of life to the body of humankind, a dew to the soil of the human heart, and a fruit upon the tree of humility.
- Baha’u’llah
Christian Prayer for Peace
Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be known as the Children of God.
But I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
To those who strike you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from those who take away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well.
Give to everyone who begs from you, and of those who take away your goods, do not ask for them again.
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
