Daily Prayer for Peace
Daily Prayer for Peace
1:00 p.m.

Map of Malawi

Flag of Malawi
Malawi

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Gathering in Silence
Call to Prayer
Lighting of Candle

Invitation
  Welcome, and we greet you in the name of the Prince of Peace to this sacred place. Each day in this Temple dedicated to the pursuit of peace, we pray to God for peace in our world. In addition, each day we pray for a different country.

Today we will remember the people of Malawi in our prayers. Located in southern Africa, the British protectorate of Nyasaland became the independent nation of Malawi in 1964. After three decades of one-party rule, the country held multiparty elections in 1994 under a provisional constitution. National multiparty elections were held again in 1999. Increasing corruption, population growth, increasing pressure on agricultural lands, and HIV/AIDS pose major problems for the country.

We have come from our daily lives to pray that the light of peace will heal the dark places of the earth. Let us worship as one and thereby be the light we are called to be.
 
Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:38-48 INT
  You’ve heard the commandment, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you,
don’t resist an evil person. When someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn and offer the other. If anyone wants to sue you for your shirt, hand over your coat as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go two miles. Give to those who beg from you. And don’t turn your back on those who want to borrow from you.

You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor—but hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your
enemies and pray for your persecutors. This will prove that you are children of God. For God makes the sun rise on bad and good alike; God’s rain falls on the just and the unjust. If you love those who love you, what merit is there in that? Don’t tax collectors do as much? And if you greet only your sisters and brothers, what is so praiseworthy about that? Don’t Gentiles do as much? Therefore be perfect, as Abba God in heaven is perfect.
 

Prayer for Peace by  Hilda F. Deem, Oakdale, Connecticut
  Dear Lord, we praise you. We praise you that you are, and that you always have been and always will be. Please open our eyes to see the world around us and help us to visualize the world as you intended it to be.

Where there is hate may we exemplify love, where there is need may we be charitable, where there is loneliness may we give comfort, where there is misunderstanding may we seek for reconciliation. Where there is sorrow may we show compassion, for it is only in giving of ourselves that we can become instruments of peace in the world. Amen.
 

Hymn -  Forgive Us, Lord - Hymns of the Saints #103
 
Prayers of the People
Please join us now, praying the Prayers of the People. During the moments of silence, you are invited to pray silently or meditate.
  O, God, let us join in a common confession of our sins. Forgive us for the arrogance of our pride of race, of nation, and of class, by which we put down others and thus break the community of the human family, in defiance of your will.
The People Pray in Silence
  Forgive us for the sin of our self-concern, where we seek first our own private good, in getting and gaining, to the neglect of our neighbor's needs near and far.
The People Pray in Silence
  Forgive us for our casual and careless disdain for the good earth, in all its majesty and beauty, which we plunder and despoil for present gain, counting not the dire cost the future must pay.
The People Pray in Silence
  O God, we ask your watchcare and blessing for the people of Malawi. Help them, and us, to learn peaceful ways to settle our differences.
The People Pray in Silence
  We ask divine blessing upon the needs and concerns of those gathered here this day. Hear our petitions we humbly ask.
The People Pray in Silence
  Please use this space to pray for any current concern or event in our community, city, state, nation or world that you feel needs to be held up to God for prayerful consideration.
The People Pray in Silence
  May we be at peace and may we be engaged in peacemaking is our earnest prayer. Amen.
 
Sending Forth
  We will conclude our service today with Ministry of Music. You are invited to remain to pray or meditate in the quiet of this place for as long as you may wish.

Go now, in peace, in love and in understanding of what it means to live in peace. Amen
 
Ministry of Music