Today in our prayers for the people of Barbados.

Prayer for Peace

Katie Harmon-McLaughlin

God, redeemer of Our Story,

Help us attune our ears to a different story, the story of your shalom being written across the eons of time.

Give us wisdom to notice the narratives influencing our lives, and to choose the story you yearn to write in and through us.

A story where blood spilled is never the cause for celebration, victory, or indifference.

A story about all children having access to clean, safe, drinking water, enough nourishing food on their plates, and the freedom of true belonging.

A story where there is no villain, where oppressed and oppressor find healing, wholeness, and redemption in your radically inclusive, transformative kindom.

A story where we remember that we are your sacred creation and live as though our lives and futures are intertwined with forest and fauna, whale and coral reef.

A story where everyone, without exception, is seen as carrying some amount of the light needed to strengthen the flame of our humanity. Anyone cast aside dims us all.

Remind us of this story that has been drowned in our hearts by other, louder narratives of violence, greed, and individualism as the norms. Let us listen more closely to your story of peace, and imagine us all living there together. Amen.