A Concord Pastor Comments: NIGHT PRAYER: Lighting the first candle...

At sundown today we enter Advent: a season to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christmas and for the day when Christ will come again at the end of our lives and in the fullness of time...

Each Saturday night in this season, Night Prayer will offer a prayer fo lighting one or more candles on the Advent wreath...

If you have an Advent Wreath at home, pray for peace this week as you light the first candle each day. If you don't have an Advent Wreath - light any candle and pray for peace. If you have no candle, use the virtual candle above and pray for peace each time you light the candle on your wreath this week...

Let us pray for peace...

Let us pray for an end to terrorism and war,
an end to violence and bloodshed...

Let us pray for peace in Ukraine and Russia,
   the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria
    Burkina Faso, the Sahel, Haiti,
   the Central African Republic, Somalia,
   the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
   and place where the poor are the victims

of power and greed...

Let us pray for the wisdom

   to make peace our final and greatest goal,
   to negotiate rather than attack,
   to speak rather than to raise a fist,
   to reconcile differences in favor of the common good,
   to value human life above any other cause or concern,
   to forgive one another as we would want to be forgiven...

Let us pray for the safe return of those in harm's way,
who are far from home, family and friends...

Let us pray for peace at our nation's borders
and at the borders of nations around the world...

Let us pray for legislation

to end to the violence of mass shootings...

Let us pray for racial peace and harmony
   all around the world...

Let us pray for a bipartisan political peace in America...

Let us pray for peace of mind
   for those who grieve loved ones lost in war...

Let us pray for our enemies...

Let us pray for peace within the Church,
among those divided

by theological and liturgical differences...

Let us pray for healing peace

in the hearts, minds and souls

of those abused by the Church and her ministers...

Let us pray for the peace
of truth, honesty and transparency in the Church...

Let us pray for the unity of all who believe in Christ...

Let us pray for peace and understanding
between the people of different faiths...

Let us pray for an end to the wars we wage
in our own families, at our kitchen tables,

in our communities and neighborhoods,

at work, at school and in our parishes...

Let us pray for the peace and safety
of all who live with domestic violence...

Let us pray for those we make our personal enemies...
and for those who make enemies of us...

Let us pray for an end to the wars we fight
with ourselves

and within ourselves...

Let us pray for healing peace

in the minds and hearts
of all who live with anxiety,

fear and depression...

Let us pray for peace in those secret places

in our own hearts

where only God knows

how great is our need for peace...

Let us pray for that peace

we cannot give or make for ourselves,

the peace the world cannot give,

the peace that comes from God alone...

Protect us, Lord, while we're awake
and watch over us while we sleep
that awake, we might keep watch with you
and asleep, rest in your peace...

Amen.

You might find the mood and tone of tonight's song unsettling: it's the plaintive chant of those who long for peace. I offer it here with the thought that we find the peace we truly need only when we acknowledge the depths of our need for God...

During Advent, I'll include a sung Advent Blessing each night just after the Night Prayer musical selection...

If two widgets don't appear below, click here!

Peace by Dan Loewen