Weekly Peace Prayer
for August 11, 2026
prepared by
Sister Carmel Little, CSJP
Weekly, members of our Congregation, associates, staff, friends, and family throughout the United States and the United Kingdom pray for peace. Some gather in groups, while others pray in solitude using the prayer on this page, composed by Carmel Little, CSJP.
If you would like to view the livestream of the prayer service at St. Mary on the Lake in Bellevue, Washington, please visit this page on Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Scroll down to view the video player.
Constitutions:
In all our efforts to be a community for mission,
We acknowledge our interdependence with one another
and our reliance on the love and fidelity of God
to lead us into the way of peace. # 37
Reading:
Imagine offering radical gospel hospitality: care for all, care for the earth. Let us imagine peace and nonviolence for ourselves in a world of peace and justice where no mouth is left hungry and the forgotten are embraced. Let us imagine a world of enough for all. Let us imagine touching sadness with a smile. Let us imagine touching discouragement with hope. Embracing this incredible abundance, we trust that it is never too late for God to invigorate and revitalize a person, a church, the world. Grace Abounds, Sister Edith Prendergast, R.S.C
Prayer:
Come Holy Spirit, refresh and renew us,
draw us deeply into your love,
soften our hearts, rouse our spirits, and
enable us to respond with generous hearts to life.
Help us to recommit ourselves to Jesus’ way of radical hospitality
in our homes, in our communities, in our workplace.
St. Joseph, dreamer and practical one,
help us live this commitment in our everyday life.
May the whole of creation
rejoice in God’s justice and live in God’s peace.
We pray with confidence and faith in Jesus’ Amen
Quiet Reflection
Reading:
“Hospitality,” writes Benedictine sister Joan Chittister, “is the way we come out of ourselves. It is the first step toward dismantling the barriers of the world. Hospitality is the way we turn a prejudiced world around one heart at a time.”
Spiritual Literacy, Frederic and Many Ann Brussat
Enough
Worry and stress are not hard for us, God,
we do them without thinking
There is always the potential of threat
to our security,
our comfort,
our health,
our relationships,
our lives
and we foolishly think that
we could silence the fear
if we just had enough money,
enough insurance,
enough toys,
enough stored for a rainy day.
It’s never enough, though;
the voice of our fear will
not be dismissed so easily.
But in the small, silent places
within us is another voice;
one that beckons us
into the foolishness of faith,
that points our gaze
to the birds and flowers,
that, in unguarded moments,
lets our muscles relax,
and our hearts lean into loved ones;
In unexpected whispers
we hear it,
calling us to remember
your promises,
your grace,
your faithfulness;
And suddenly, we discover
that it is enough. Amen
Weavings Vol. XXV Number 4,
John Van De Laar
Quiet Reflection
Prayer:
Open my eyes that they may see the deepest needs of people;
Move my hands that they may feed the hungry;
Touch my heart that it may bring warmth to the despairing;
Teach me the generosity that welcomes strangers;
Let me share my possessions to clothe the naked;
Give me the care that strengthens the sick;
Make me share in the quest to set the prisoner free.
In sharing our anxieties and our love,
our poverty and our prosperity,
we partake of your divine presence.
Canaan Banana, Zimbabwe, in With All God’s People:
The New Ecumenical Prayer Cycle
