As Bishop Munib Younan prepares to attend the prayer service at the Vatican with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres, he has asked that our friends and partners around the world pray for peace based on justice for both nations and peoples:
"We Christians have the power of prayer. Prayer will change us – it will not change the mind of God, which is the mind of peace – but it will change us and change the minds of our leaders. It will show our leaders that our people in both Palestine and Israel don't want any more hatred, they don't want any more violence, they don't want any more separation, they don't want any more occupation, they don't want any more blood shed. They want to live with their children and grandchildren lives of peace with justice.
I would ask all the Lutherans in the world support us in their prayers duringSunday services that God will change the minds of our leaders and people towards peace."
Let us pray:
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
Amen.
