Gracious God,

We thank you on this day for all the blessings in our lives. You have blessed the world with

so many devoted people who have lived your mission of unity and reconciliation. Continue to spread your love to the world through such devoted witnesses of your love.

We come to you on this day with sorrow in our hearts. Sorrow about so many places in the

world where people are yearning for peace – but there is no peace. We bring before you

suffering in all places where the cycle of violence is going on and on and there seems to be

no end.

In the refugee camps in Sudan, in the ruins of Gaza, in the villages and cities of Ukraine, in

the hills of eastern Congo, in the rainforests of Colombia, in the mountains of Myanmar.

We bring before you the children who lose their fathers in war. The mothers who desperately stand before the dead bodies of their children under the rubble of their bombed homes. 

Through your son Jesus Christ you know the suffering they experience, you know the

forsakenness they feel, you know their despair. We trust you are present amongst them now.

We ask you to move the hearts of those who are suffering. That they may feel your love,

your comfort, your power.

We ask you to move the hearts of those who cause their suffering. That they may feel

empathy. That they may repent. That they may be liberated from the darkness of death into

the brightness of life.

We pray for all of us that we may see the suffering not only on our side but also on the other side. That we may become instruments of peace.

Gracious God, we ask you to fill our hearts

with your spirit so that we may be witnesses of your son Jesus Christ’s love which moves the

world to reconciliation and unity.

God, we lay our own future and the future of the world in your hands. In you we trust. You

are our creator, our sustainer, our redeemer. You will open the door for peace.

Amen

(World Council of Churches)