Prayers for Peace
April 29, 2020
As we celebrate the Risen Christ, we invite you to join us as we pray for peace in our world, in our homes and in our hearts. We will continue to offer Wednesday 'Prayers for Peace' (in the Taizé format) throughout the COVID crisis.
If you can't join us live, no worries. The link to view it 'on demand' is here. Taizé is also wonderful to listen to when you're working or reading . . . wherever and whenever you want!
With music, prayer, silence and reflection, Taizé (pronounced ‘tay-zay’) will bring calm to your soul and provide you strength for the days ahead. Find a quiet place in your home. Bring a few candles with you. Then open your heart and your mind. Read one of the meditations at the beginning of each silent moment. Follow along with the readings and the song lyrics here and participate more fully with us.
And we begin . . .
As we gather in silence, please light your candle(s). Let the light that each of us catches from this time of waiting, bring peace to our hearts and to our suffering world.
We thank you for sharing your faith journey with us in this peaceful hour of reflection. Meditation is a key that can open many doors along the path to God. We tend to be so outer-focused that we lose track of the real path, which is the inner journey to a personal relationship with our Lord.
In the silence of the heart God speaks.
If you face God in prayer and silence,
God will speak to you.
- from ‘No Greater Love’ by Mother Teresa
Be Still and Know
Sing 5 times:
Be Still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Reading (1 Samuel 12:20-24)
“Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own. As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.
The Word of the Lord.
Resp: Thanks be to God.
Meditation Reflection
Silent Meditation is the inner prayer of the heart where we are simply being with God. In silence we humbly accept that God knows our needs, we trust in his love which created us, and persevere with the knowledge that his love will eventually complete us.
Risen Lord, Be With Us
Sing 5 times:
Risen Lord, be with us.
Teach us to love as you love us.
Risen Lord, stay with us.
Help us to lay down our lives.
Reading (John 14:15-27)
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Resp: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Meditation Reflection
The conscious mind, with its worrying and negative beliefs, is the cause of our material predicament. Inside and behind this worrying process, the perfection and abundance of the divine realm is persistently trying to press itself into our minds and lives. If we still this mind, then we get out of the way and allow the grandeur of God to enter our existence.
Stay With Us, O Lord
Sing 5 times:
Stay with us, O Lord, for the day will soon be over.
Stay within us, O Light, O Light of the world:
when you are near, the night becomes day.
Meditation Reflection
Our agitated mind is constantly dwelling on the past, reacting to some event in our world or preoccupied with fears and concerns about the future. Stilling the mind allows our little self, our worries and concerns, to take a break. If this little self can get quiet, our true Self can emerge. God can express Himself in our world.
Sacred Creation
Sing 5 times:
Sacred the land, sacred the water, sacred the sky, holy and true.
Sacred all life, sacred each other;
all reflect God who is good.
Meditation Reflection
Worries and concerns of our fearful self, like wind on a lake, keep things stirred up and keep us removed from our peaceful self. Anxiety, fear and anger are unproductive protective mechanisms that keep peace at a distance in our world. Taking a break from these primitive defenses is possible. We just have to allow it.
Intercessions
Hear the prayers that rise up like incense before you.
Hear our prayer, hear our prayer, God of compassion, listen to our prayer.
Meditation Reflection
Understood in this way,
we can see that silence – or being still – is a type of prayer,
an active acknowledgment of God, Spirit.
The divine power of Spirit that can be felt during silent prayer
helps us feel the healing and protecting presence of our Father in heaven.
Like a Child Rests
Sing 5 times:
Like a child rests in its mother's arms, so will I rest in you.
Like a child rests in its mother's arms, so will I rest in you.
The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.
-Exodus 14:14