Prayer for the World November 4, 2026
We the People ...
Introduction: We have just been through the latest election cycle, enduring in many cases political ads and speeches attacking one’s opponent and listing their “sins” whether true or not. At the same time, we long for leaders who value and embody peace, justice, truth and love. The challenge to “We the People …” is to embody these values that we desire to see in our leaders.
Song: "Peace is Flowing Like a River"
Peace is flowing like a river,
flowing out of you and me.
Flowing out into the desert,
setting all the captives free.
Love is flowing like a river …
Healing’s flowing like a river …
Alleluia, alleluia …
Readings: Excerpts from Jesus, A Gospel: God and the World, by Henri Nouwen:
Jesus sees the evil in this world as a lack of trust in God’s love. … Jesus shows us that true love, the love that comes from God, makes no distinction between friends and foes, between people who are for us and people who are against us, people who do us a favor and people who do us ill. God makes no distinction. God loves all human beings, good or bad, with the same unconditional love. This all-embracing love Jesus offers to us, and he invites us to make this love visible in our lives. ...
There you have it: the love of God is an unconditional love, and only that love can empower us to live together without violence. When we know that God loves us deeply and will always go on loving us, whoever we are and whatever we do, it becomes possible to expect no more of our fellow men and women than they are able to give, to forgive them generously when they have offended us, and always to respond to their hostility with love. By doing so we make visible a new way of being human and a new way of responding to our world problems.
… Whenever we forgive instead of letting fly at one another, bless instead of cursing one another, tend one another’s wounds instead of rubbing salt into them, hearten instead of discouraging one another, give hope instead of driving one another to despair, hug instead of harassing one another, welcome instead of cold shouldering one another, thank instead of criticizing one another. Praise instead of maligning one another … in short, whenever we opt for and not against one another, we make God’s unconditional love visible; we are diminishing violence and giving birth to a new community.
Silent Prayer and Reflection
Let us together prayerfully
-- Embrace the Gospel call to love, welcome, and care for all people. (Pause)
-- Affirm our commitment to uphold the inherent right to life of every person. (Pause)
-- Stand against violence in all its forms, caring for our common home, Earth, through attentive stewardship. (Pause)
-- Unite in welcoming immigrants and working for comprehensive immigration reform. (Pause)
-- Commit ourselves to living compassion, communion and nonviolence as members of the Global Community. (Pause)
-- Offer one another the gift of hope grounded in faith. (Pause)
Loving Jesus, help us in this way to make visible a new way of being human and a new way of responding to our world problems, thereby helping to further God’s Kingdom in this world through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Silent Reflection
Song: "Peace is Flowing Like a River"
