The Spirit of Peace and Giving

PRAYER FOR PEACE:  Monday,  December 19th, 2011 9am P.S.T.

FOCUS:  The Spirit of Peace and Giving

Thank You, Beloved, for announcing the coming of peace on earth

And for coming among us to make peace.

Thank You for siding with the homeless, the marginalized, the outsider, the disenfranchised.

Thank You for being good news for the poor and the oppressed.

Thank You for showing us the Way, the Truth, and the Life of Peace.

Thank You for Loving us so much,

For gifting Your universal, unconditional, nonviolent Love into the world.

Thank You for teaching us how to live, how to Love, how to serve,

how to pray, how to make peace, how to show compassion,

how to practice nonviolence, how to resist empire, how to suffer, and how to die.

Thank You for calling us away from violence and injustice

into the new life of peace, justice, community and resurrection.

Most of all, thank You for teaching us how to be human.

Alas, so many of us want to play god that we've become inhuman.

You, on the other hand, let go of Your divinity to share our humanity,

And in the process, teach us how to be Godly.

This Christmas, give us the grace to imitate Your life,

To become new people of creative nonviolence like You.

Help us to be better practitioners of peace,

Contemplatives of peace, teachers of peace, apostles of peace, prophets of peace.

Help us abolish injustice, resist empire, end war, dismantle weapons

That we might reverence life and creation as You did.

Bless us that we might be Your warriors of peace

People who Love one another, Love our neighbours, and Love our nation's enemies.

Bless us that we might serve You in the world's children,

Raise You through our nonviolent actions

And honour You by following in Your footsteps

That we too might incarnate the Holy Spirit of Peace.

This Christmas, Beloved, bless us all over again,

That we might live with a new, mature faith,

That we might become peacemaking saints,

That we might be instruments of peace on earth.

Bless us all, that suffering may end,

That all may be healed,

That all may live in peace,

That all may radiate Your Love,

And that all may be One.

In Your most holy name we pray

Amen

(adapted from a prayer by John Dear)