Prayer for the World February 11, 2026
- Feb 11
- 2 min read
Heal Our World
Introduction
Violence – in all its vicious forms we have experienced and that has been inflicted upon us - is one of the hardest realities we have to live with, to forgive, and to somehow absorb. We only need to look at our own contemporary histories to find this violence in endless experiences: wars, occupations, random mass killings, school shootings, hating others and seeking to exterminate their enemies whom they see as different from them, slow starvation, and we could go on. How do we undo the harm done in such situations and relationships? How do our communities and we respond?
Song: Healing Prayer by Jan Novotka,
Oh, heal our vision. Heal division.
Oh, heal our world that we might live as one.
Silent Reflection:
We need to be in solidarity with the “now” of this moment – if indeed this time is to be holy – it must be a solidarity in grief, in loss, in lament, as we all live in this age of exponential change. What we need is to lament and grieve the loss of the familiar.
Lament and lamentation protest the “normalization” of events. We declare, “ This is not right! This is not just! This is not how it should be!” When we lament, when we grieve, when we mourn, we declare: “This pain ought not be!”
Lament grieves the devastation that we have wrought upon the earth.
Lament can also transform us from bystanders into witnesses.
Lament becomes the prelude to action and change. Without lamenting over loss, the new is received as a threat. Grieving and lamenting the loss of the present prepares us for the arrival of the new. Lamenting allows us to greet the arrival of the new as a gift, not a threat.
Silent reflection:
We are not allowed to ignore the pain of others, especially all that results from violence, abuse, humiliation, and shaming. Healing from violence cannot be done alone. If, as Thomas Merton said, “Love is our true destiny, then we do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone …we find it with others.”
The first essential and crucial steps in healing, in forgiveness, and in reconciliation are done with others.
(Ideas taken from Bryan Massingale’s talk to LCWR, 2024 Assembly)
Song: Healing Prayer
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