A Prayer pour Notre Temps

From one of America's foremost Christian ethicists:

Dear Lord, at our feet lie dead Iraqis, dead Kuwaitis, dead Kurds, dead Corats, dead Slavs, dead Salvadorans, dead Americans, dead Palestinians, dead Israelis, dead Jews, dead children, dead Christians--dead, dead, dead. We ask your mercy on these war-dead sisters and brothers. We ask for the same mercy for ourselves, for our failure to be your peace, to be the end of war. Save us from the powers that capture our imagnations so that we think our only alternative is war. We know we cannot will our way to peace, for when we try, we end up fighting wars for peace. So compel us with your love that we might be your peace, thus bringing life to this deadly world. Amen.

From Prayers Plainly Spoken by Stanley Hauerwas