God,
We come before you today with longing in our hearts.
We long for your peace. Yet it feels impossible to imagine as wars rage across our world, as genocide takes innocent lives, as invasions begin new conflicts. What power could possibly stop the endless spread of violence? Not only against our fellow humanity but against our planet itself, as we continue to extract everything it has to offer until it is impossible to sustain ourselves. Do not turn your face from us, God.
We long for your justice, for without justice, we can never have peace. The principalities and powers dehumanize our neighbors at every turn. Threats of deportation. Stripping away of women’s rights and autonomy. Removal of diversity, equity, and inclusion in institutions. Demonizing of LGBTQ+-identifying people. Efforts to erase our history are happening before our very eyes. What justice will ever come if we allow the past to be erased and refuse to repair harms that have been done – harms done often in your name? Do not abandon us to the whims of tyrants, God.
We long for your love and compassion. Hatred has enthroned itself in our hearts, communities, and societies. Rather than recognizing our dependence on one another in all our diversity, we cling to ourselves and demonize what is different. We have been fooled into fashioning idols to hatred and effigies to distrust. How can we restore our relationships and our communities, how can we dignify our fellow human beings in all their wonderful difference and uniqueness, when we have allowed animosity and hostility to take a seat not only in our hearts, but in our neighborhoods, in our cities, in our institutions, and in our nations? Do not release us into the terror of our own making, God.
But God, remind us that we are yours. In us, your divine spirit breathes life. Through us, your will is done. In our communities, your power is made manifest. You reside among our most vulnerable neighbors and weep with them. You shout among the protestors and decry the injustices of world. You, God, are the source of survival. You, God, are the source of our hope. You, God, are the source of our inspiration. You, God, are the source of our love.
Make us the instruments of your peace. Give us the compassion to release our weapons and where there is violence of any kind, may we sow belonging and wholeness.
Make us the instruments of your justice. Give us the courage to dream of a new world and where there is injustice in any form, may we fashion from your creative and dynamic spirit a world where all can flourish.
Make us the instruments of your love. Give us the strength to release our hatred and fear and in their place, may we incarnate your all-encompassing love in our relationships, communities, and institutions.
God, be with us. In the name of the one who taught us to pray, we pray together…