Today in our prayers for the people of China.
Prayer for Peace
Wallace B. Smith
Gracious God, at this season of the year when, for us gathered here, new life begins to show itself--and all the wonders of nature proclaim the joy of your creation, we pause to give thanks for the abundance of your blessings, and at the same time confess our failure to live up to the high purposes you have set for us.
You have planted the seed of peace in our hearts, and yet have had to water it with our own tears when we have so carelessly let it lie parched and neglected. Hear our prayer this day that we may nurture with more care the possibilities you have created in us.
This very day we commemorate the fearful time when peace, in the form of your Son, was nailed to a cross and lifted up for our sakes. Forgive us for the tendency we have to keep repeating that act of violence in our rejection of those different from us, those in need, those challenging our comfortable notions and ways of thinking.
As we seek forgiveness for the times we have sought for mere calm rather than a just peace, we pray for strength to be closer in our thoughts and actions to Him whose life and death and resurrection revealed to us the possibilities of a life lived truly for your peace. It is in his name we pray. Amen.
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