Prayers For Victims and Witnesses of Violent Crime

Prayers For Victims and Witnesses of Violent Crime

Prayer for Peace 4

Hidden, eternal, unfathomable, all-merciful God,

who has told us, “Vengeance is mine,”

save us from ourselves,

save us from the vengeance in our hearts

and the acid in our souls.

Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt,

to punish as we have been punished,

to terrorize as we have been terrorized.

Give us the strength it takes

to listen rather than to judge,

to trust rather than to fear,

to try again and again

to make peace even when peace eludes us.

We ask, O God, for the grace

to be our best selves.

We ask for the vision

to be builders of the human community

rather than its destroyers.

We ask for the humility as a people

to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.

We ask for the love it takes

to bequeath to the children of the world to come

more than the failures of our own making.

We ask for the heart it takes

to care for all the people who

have suffered and survived

violent crimes – victims, survivors and witnesses.

Give us the depth of soul, O God,

to constrain our might,

to resist the temptations of power

to refuse to attack the attackable,

to understand

that vengeance begets violence,

and to bring peace–not violence–wherever we go.

For You, O God, have been merciful to us.

For You, O God, have been patient with us.

For You, O God, have been gracious to us.

And so may we be merciful

and patient

and gracious

and trusting

with these others whom you also love.

In your time we seek your healing

That we might become a community of

Those who heal, and comfort

One another, and all those who come to us

Seeking respite from the storms of violence

That continue to shake our faith,

Our patience, our trust and our capacity

To be a source of mercy for others – all others.

This we ask forever and ever. Amen

~ written by Sister Joan Chittister, Benedictine Sister of Erie

Posted on World Prayers; amended by The Reverend Kirk A Kubicek for

The Howard County Vigil for Victims and Witnesses of Violent Crime,

April 13, 2016