Today is the World Day of Peace, and the beginning of a new year, and a suitable time to reflect and set our intentions for the year ahead. How are we making peace a priority? How are we creating justice? We offer you this Prayer-Study-Action to support your commitment to the spirituality of nonviolence in 2020. May we find and create peace, love, and justice in ourselves and in our world.
Prayer
Prayer for Disarmament
Breath of All that Is,
Preserve us from our own madness.
Direct us away from dealing destruction to others,
A path which leads to the ruin
Of our selves and our world.
Protect us. Help us to hear You.
Jesus Christ, Beloved,
Show us your precious face in all others,
You in us, and we in each other, from all places.
Teach us how to lower our defenses,
Feed us Love which transcends fear.
Heal us. Help us to let go of all fear.
Holy Spirit,
You Call us, in our minds, in our world,
And through each other. Speak to us. Speak through us.
When we worship power, control, money,
When we cannot forgive, or shove pain onto others,
Call us. Light the fire of Love.
We will not be afraid.
We will not be afraid.
Love transcends all fear.
You Are with us always.
Amen.
Prayer is from Pax Christi Northern California
Study
Take some time to read Pope Francis’ message for the 53rd World Day of Peace titled, “Peace as a journey of hope: dialogue, reconciliation and ecological conversion.” The letter is rich with insight.
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE
FRANCIS
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE
53rd WORLD DAY OF PEACE
1 JANUARY 2020
PEACE AS A JOURNEY OF HOPE:
DIALOGUE, RECONCILIATION AND ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION
1. Peace, a journey of hope in the face of obstacles and trial
Peace is a great and precious value, the object of our hope and the aspiration of the entire human family. As a human attitude, our hope for peace is marked by an existential tension that makes it possible for the present, with all its difficulties, to be “lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey”.[1] Hope is thus the virtue that inspires us and keeps us moving forward, even when obstacles seem insurmountable.
Our human community bears, in its memory and its flesh, the scars of ever more devastating wars and conflicts that affect especially the poor and the vulnerable. Entire nations find it difficult to break free of the chains of exploitation and corruption that fuel hatred and violence. Even today, dignity, physical integrity, freedom, including religious freedom, communal solidarity and hope in the future are denied to great numbers of men and women, young and old. Many are the innocent victims of painful humiliation and exclusion, sorrow and injustice, to say nothing of the trauma born of systematic attacks on their people and their loved ones.
Action
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Posted on Facebook, with much delight
The pope’s message is too anthropomorphic and not biotic enough for the ecozoic era that we are in, IMHO. Peace on Earth is admirable but Peace with Earth is essential. Greta Thunberg’s message to adults everywhere “How Dare you” — destroy our planet — .rings true and urgent to me.