Today in our prayers for the people of Belgium.

Prayer for Peace

Dan Gregory

First Walker of the Way,

How we long to follow in your paths. To be known among our friends and in our communities as the people of peace. To reflect the light that has come into our lives in each space where we find ourselves looking into your face. Your spirit quickens within us — let us hear! Your peace brings comfort — let us breathe! Your vision draws us beyond the horizon — let us walk!

We yearn to walk in the way that leads to your dream of shalom. Let us take up the mission — your mission — of giving birth to the world that is the already but the not yet of your longings. A world where there is no doubt that the lives and bodies of your Black children matter. A world where every transgender person can live their truth authentically and without shame. A world where no child is torn from their parent’s loving arms and locked in the terror of a cage. A world where every belly is full, where every head has a place to rest, where the Earth is esteemed, where the murderous hiss of guns and bombs and tanks are silenced.

Show us these ways, O God of vision! Strip away our feeble excuses. Lay bare the fallacy of our apathy. Hold us to account in the face of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, in the gasping of patients succumbing to infectious disease isolated and afraid, in the shudder of the trees as we fell them in the name of progress.

Lift our eyes to the vision of what must be, not just what might be. Remind us we do not walk the way alone but are strengthened as we draw close to you and to one another. When we falter, forgive us. When our hearts harden, break them open. When we encounter weary spirits, may we extend the invitation to come and see the One who revives us and brings us peace. For we yearn to walk in the way that leads to your dream of shalom. Comfort our fears. Strengthen our resolve. Surprise us along the way. Open us to new understandings and dimensions of your grace. Soften our hearts that we might see you and walk with you and live peacefully and passionately, following in the footsteps of the Living Christ.

May our time together shape us and send us to be the image of your peace in the world. Through us, may our neighbors know the expansive compassion of your love and be drawn into the hope you gift. Walk beside us, speak within us, bring justice through us, we pray. In the name of the One who is the way, even Jesus the Christ.