Weekly Peace Prayer

for April 1, 2025
prepared by
Sister Carmel Little, CSJP

The call to experience Lent as a journey of conversion, prayer and sharing of our goods, helps us – as communities and as individuals – to revive the faith that comes from the living Christ, the hope inspired by the breath of the Holy Spirit and the love flowing from the merciful heart of the Father.
Pope Francis

Constitutions:
Formation is a life-long process of creative growth
as we participate in the mission of Jesus Christ through the vowed life.
We believe that the Spirit leads each of us to an integrity of life
expressive of the wholeness of peace. # 63

Reading:  John 5:1-16

Reading:
Do you want to be well?  That was the question Jesus asks the man in today’s gospel.
…
But for us, are we willing to be healed, to be made whole?  To be in right relationship with God, neighbor, and with nature? Are we ready to make the changes required to live up to what it means to be a person who has felt the touch of God? Ready to make substantial changes in our lives that demonstrate and testify to God’s love?  Being healed means we desire that same healing for others, and we are willing to show how we became healed  and how they too might enjoy and appreciate being well.

Sometimes it is easier to just wallow in our illness and our sicknesses, to not go through the trouble that healing requires of us, wallowing in mundane, routine, dull, unexciting lives and just surviving from day to day and not really living.

So, during this Lenten season, do we want to be healed , both as individual and as our  global family?  To be changed so that the power and principalities of oppression will transform to communities of justice.  To live our lives differently so that peace becomes a reality?

Jesus is asking us, do you want to be healed?
Ralph McCloud, Pax Christi Lenten booklet

Prayer:          
Teach me your ways, O Lord,
That I may walk in your truth.

Show me a sign of your love.
Bring me help and comfort, O Lord. 
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.

Teach me your ways, O Lord,
That I may walk in your peace.

Quiet Reflection

Prayer:       
Gracious God, I ask for a listening heart,
open and receptive so that
I can hear you in the ordinary events of life.

Compassionate God, create in me a clean heart,
cleared of the refuse of old battles with others
and opposition with myself.

Gracious God, I ask for a trusting heart,
cleansed of anxiety and fear,  restoring in me an enduring faith
in your abiding presence and unconditional love.

Compassionate God; create in me a tender heart,
freed from harsh thoughts, and perfectionistic tendencies,
warmly welcoming others with openness and love.

Gracious God, create in me a silent heart,
free of the frantic busyness, so that I will have time to dwell
with you in the listening space of solitude.

Loving God, create in me an accepting heart,
that I may embrace all parts of who I am,
the light and the dark, the weak and the strong,
so I may reflect your goodness and light in the world.

Gracious God, create in me a peaceful heart,
that I may live in reverence with all people,
in harmony with all creation and be your peace in the world. 
Joyce Rupp, adapted

Quiet Reflection:

Prayer:          

O bless this people, Lord, who seek their own face
 Under the mask and can hardly recognize it…
O, bless this people that breaks its bond….
And with them, all the peoples of Europe,
All the peoples of Asia,
All the peoples of Africa
All the peoples of America,
Who sweat blood and sufferings.
And see, in the midst of  these millions of waves
The sea swell of the heads of my people.
And grant to their warm hands that they may clasp
The earth in a girdle of brotherly hands,
Beneath the rainbow of thy peace.                            
Leopold Sedar Senghor