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| Fourth Week of Advent, First Week of Christmas: December 23-29 |
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Action for Fourth Week of Advent, First Week of Christmas |
Pax Christi USA is encouraging its members, friends and all people of conscience and good will to undertake one specific action for peace during each week of Advent. For each week, Pax Christi USA will suggest one coordinated action in which individuals and groups from around the nation may participate together. This week's action encourages you and your group to hold a public prayer service for peace, associated with Christmas or the Feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 27), or any day this week. This action draws us into a public posture of both repentance and hope, inviting others to consider the travesty of war and the promise of peace. Feel free use the prayer service below; or one from our best-selling book, Our Prayers Rise Like Incense: Liturgies for Peace, by Cindy Pile; or create your own.
A Prayer Service for Peace
Opening Music
Leader: Let us begin, centering ourselves in silence, and cultivating in our own hearts, through prayer, the peace for which our world hungers.
– Pass out or light candles and observe a few moments of silent reflection –
And let us pray together for peace in our world.
ALL: O God of peace and justice, we beseech you to transform our hearts so that we may transform the world in which we live. In this world addicted to war-making, enthuse in us a passion for peacemaking. In this climate of lies and fear, give us the courage to speak truth to power. In this culture of death and despair, empower us to embrace life and live in hope.
Guide us as we give shape to a new vision in which all people can live in peace and with dignity, where reconciliation and forgiveness are practiced, and the whole of creation is respected and reverenced. Amen.
First Reading: From the Jewish tradition, the book of Micah, 4:1-4 (adapted)
In days to come, the mount of God’s house shall be established higher than the mountains, it shall rise high above the hills, and people shall stream to it. Many nations shall come and say, “Come, let us climb the mount of God, that she may instruct us in her ways, that we may walk in her paths. She shall judge between many peoples and impose terms on strong and distant nations; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. Every one shall sit under her own vine or under his own fig tree undisturbed; for our God has spoken.
To this we say:
ALL: Salaam, Shalom, Peace. Amen.
Prayers of Petition
Reader One: Let us ask our God for forgiveness for the times we have not been people of peace.
Reader Two: Eternal God, shepherd of every hope, refuge of our bewildered heart, and fountain of forgiveness, receive our prayer of peace for our world.
ALL: O God, hear our prayer.
Reader One: Save us from our resignation to violence. Teach us that thoughtfulness and tenderness are the marks of the strong.
Reader Two: Help us to love our enemies, not by countenancing their sins, but by remembering our own.
ALL: O God, hear our prayer.
Reader One: We acknowledge that you have made all of us of one blood, brothers and sisters to one another, all people as one family.
Reader Two: May we never forget that we are all fed by the same food, hurt by the same weapons, and that we all yearn for our children and their future.
ALL: O God, hear our prayer.
Leader: O God, who makes peace and harmony in the heavenly spheres, help your bewildered humanity understand the futility of war, and hatred, and violence. As hundreds of thousands of human beings look at their brothers and sisters over the barrels of guns, cannons, and missiles, help us to hear your voice which counsels compassion, patience and reconciliation. Amen.
Second Reading: From the Christian tradition, the gospel of Matthew, 5:1-10
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the reign of God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the reign of God.”
To this we say:
ALL: Salaam, Shalom, Peace. Amen.
Final Blessing
Leader: O God, cherisher and sustainer of all beings, sovereign one in and through all of creation, in your boundless mercy and care, teach us wisdom and compassion to face fear, suffering, violence and death. Teach us, most holy creator, to love mercy, to practice justice and to pursue peace.
Blessing of Peace from the Muslim tradition
Leader: O God, guide us in your ways, the ways of justice and peace. Grant us peace, O God of peace.
ALL: O Allah, You are peace. Through You flows peace. May all your creation in this world live forever and ever in peace and happiness. Amen.
Leader: And let us pledge to one another to be that peace we long for by sharing with each other a sign of peace.
Closing Music
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