A Litany for Peace

In honor of the events of this day and in the hope of lasting peace, I offer the following litany for peace by Joe Wadsworth.

Gracious God; timeless and Ageless God; you have commanded us to love our enemies. You yourself gave your life for those who were motivated by hatred.

Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name….

You have watched humanity fight and scrap. You have watched with sadness as your creation is hoarded and divided for spoil under the guise of dominion. Help us seek your will in our lives. Make us your ambassadors as well as your disciples.

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven….

You sent your only Son so that your people; All your people, might truly know of your love and of your peace. That we might fully understand your AGAPE, your SHALOM. In a time of war, our hearts need your assurance and your presence confirmed. Our leaders need to sense your power is the strengths they employ.

Give us this day our Daily Bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors…

It is so easy to reap a harvest of anger and revenge. Our hearts so easily fill with rage and discord. When war rages, sometimes our patriotism supersedes our mandate for peace and reconciliation. Forgive us our anger and grant us hearts of renewing peace. Help us be mirrors of your life even in times of discord.

For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever…

And so, Lord God of Creation, Savior of the World, we pray for a new chapter of peace to open. Before the momentum of hatred eclipses our strength to control it, grant us peace within. Create in us a clean heart and peaceful mind. This is the nature of your Kingdom; this is the basis of your power, and this is the joy of your Glory. Give us peace.

Amen

Breath Shalom

Today marks an anniversary. Today is a day when we remember the horror that happened 10 years ago. Today is a day when we remember the lives lost not only on that day but on the days since. Today is a day when we reflect, when we remember, and when we pray.

Horror takes our breath away, not in the healing sense of nirvana, but in the violent sense of being slugged hard in the gut. We are left gasping, and in that state we are vulnerable to all kinds of fear-based propaganda that leads not to repair but revenge, not to freedom but to fascism.

Spend time this anniversary of 9/11 to just breathe, deeply, freely, calmly. As you breathe in say to yourself “sha”; as you breathe out say “lom.” Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace and wholeness. It is this that terrorism steals from us, and it is this that we need if we are to respond to horror with hope rather than even great horror.

So this 9/11 breathe for all those who can’t, for all those who won’t, and for all those who are too afraid to even try.