Pray for peace
Please, if you have the capacity, pray for (or send calm & loving energy towards) all people in Israel & Lebanon right now.
Lord, let us unfold our rage, no matter how righteous, and allow love and peace to flow in to replace it.
Lord, please help me open my heart to all the civilians who have been attacked, or are in fear of it. May they feel peace and calm in the midst of injustice, pain, sorrow, and fear.
Please open my closed, angry heart to the Israeli soldiers, to the Hezbollah, to policymakers, and to the countless others who are getting involved. I feel totally incapable of loving these people, to feel anything but rage -- but if I can somehow feel sympathetic and peaceful and loving, it will be a sign of hope that a seemingly impossible and eternal conflict could end in peace.
To quote the Dalai Lama, "In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher."
Please help all these people caught up in the cycle of rage and righteousness make the brave step (braver than risking one's life for one's country or religion) of loving where there is hate. Lord, we are all not so different. I am not superior in any way to even the most violent of the terrorists, or hawkish of the Israeli policymakers. Do I know what it's like to grow up in the midst of a nearly permanent conflict? Please remove the burden of superiority from me, and from all of us, especially those in the Middle East. Please bring peace and love and happiness to the most violent and cynical.
Also, please be with my friend Hunter, who is in Beirut. Please with the family and friends of Cos and Shahar and Eyal, in Israel. Please comfort them in this fearful time.
Please help me to keep my heart and mind open and turned towards the Middle East, even when I want to close it.
Please help me open to peace in my own life, and to stop clinging my scorn and self-righteousness.
Amen.
Lord, let us unfold our rage, no matter how righteous, and allow love and peace to flow in to replace it.
Lord, please help me open my heart to all the civilians who have been attacked, or are in fear of it. May they feel peace and calm in the midst of injustice, pain, sorrow, and fear.
Please open my closed, angry heart to the Israeli soldiers, to the Hezbollah, to policymakers, and to the countless others who are getting involved. I feel totally incapable of loving these people, to feel anything but rage -- but if I can somehow feel sympathetic and peaceful and loving, it will be a sign of hope that a seemingly impossible and eternal conflict could end in peace.
To quote the Dalai Lama, "In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher."
Please help all these people caught up in the cycle of rage and righteousness make the brave step (braver than risking one's life for one's country or religion) of loving where there is hate. Lord, we are all not so different. I am not superior in any way to even the most violent of the terrorists, or hawkish of the Israeli policymakers. Do I know what it's like to grow up in the midst of a nearly permanent conflict? Please remove the burden of superiority from me, and from all of us, especially those in the Middle East. Please bring peace and love and happiness to the most violent and cynical.
Also, please be with my friend Hunter, who is in Beirut. Please with the family and friends of Cos and Shahar and Eyal, in Israel. Please comfort them in this fearful time.
Please help me to keep my heart and mind open and turned towards the Middle East, even when I want to close it.
Please help me open to peace in my own life, and to stop clinging my scorn and self-righteousness.
Amen.