by Rev. Diane Rollert
15 October 2023
How can you pray for peace,
my Israeli and Palestinian friends ask me,
when we are so angry?
How can you speak of peace,
when so many among us have such a
burning desire for revenge?
How can you speak of peace,
when we feel as though the whole world
has forsaken us?
How can we not pray for peace? I ask.
How can we not dream or hope?
How can we not turn our swords into ploughshares
even when our swords have become tanks
and bombs and drones?
Our leaders ask the worst of us,
our children deserve better.
They deserve hope,
they deserve dreams,
they deserve freedom from fear
and hunger,
they deserve the peace we have never known.
We humans are capable of such beauty,
of pyramids, temples, mosques and cathedrals,
of music that moves the heart,
of art that tells stories that can't be spoken,
of poetry that makes us weep.
We plant fields and orchards
that dance in the wind,
yet we've forgotten what the olive branch means.
How can we pray for peace you ask?
With every fibre of our being,
with every tear that falls from our eyes,
with every grieving heart,
with every Mourners Kaddish,
with every Salat al-Janazah,
with every day that we live,
with every breath,
until we become peace,
until we remember our shared humanity,
until we embrace the change,
that we must be,
until we embrace the change that is peace.
Amen.
Prayer for the Middle East and the World