Prayer for National Day for Truth & Reconcilation
Holy One, Child of Life, Great Spirit, we meet you in the company of ancestors
and the oft-unnoticed presence of people praying throughout the country,
connected by a longing for peace and healing.
Find our hearts open and ready for reconciliation
as we face the injustices of the past and long for the joy of a future of peace and healing.
Help us to attend well to the stories we need to receive.
Awaken our hearts with the stories of residential school survivors and their kin.
Together, we weep for the children, then and now:
for braids, beads, new moccasins, and the orange shirt taken away leaving only broken hearts;
for parents whose hearts were torn from them when their children were taken;
for children whose tongues were silenced when they lost their languages and names.
Awaken our spirit, O God.
Help us to hold the stories faithfully, so that they may transform us and become part of us.
May our prayers be translated into compassion and may our “Amen” be this truth:
(Indigenous) brothers, sisters, and siblings: We receive your stories.
May they lead us in wisdom and may we journey together in love. Amen.
- Wendy MacLean, 2023. Gathering Pentecost 2, Year A, GatheringWorship.ca. Used with permission.
Prayer for Peace in the Middle East
Lord God, we turn to you in these trying hours when conflict is a daily reality for our sisters and brothers in Israel and Palestine. We promise you to work to our utmost for peace and reconciliation in the region. But we know we cannot do it alone. We very much need the strength of your presence in our midst if we are to overcome the obstacles before us. So our prayer at this moment is that you add your support to our efforts, that you show yourself as a tower of strength in those moments when the barriers seem impassable. Together we can become beacons of hope for just and peaceful societies in the land so very dear to the peoples of your covenant.
– Reverend John T. Pawlikowski, Xavier University, jesuitresource. org
Lord God,
We ask you to hold the people of Ukraine deep in your heart.
Protect them, we pray;
from violence,
from political gamesmanship,
from being used and abused.
Give, we pray,
the nations of the world the courage
and the wisdom
to stand up for justice
and the courage too,
to dare to care―generously.
Lord, in your mercy,
take from us all
the tendencies in us
that seek to lord it over others:
take from us those traits
that see us pursuing our own needs and wants
before those of others.
Teach us how to live in love
and dignity
and respect―following your example.
In your name and for your sake,
Amen
―Issued by Lord Wallace, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and the Very Rev. Dr. Susan Brown, convener of the Faith Impact Forum, Church of Scotland
