Prayer for Peace by Thomas Merton
(Editorial note: This Prayer for Peace was written by Thomas Merton and read in Congress on April18, 1962, and place in the Congressional Record. It was at the request of Frank Kowalksi, Congressman from Connecticut. Tomorrow Night President Bush gives his plans to increase troop strength by 20,000 in Iraq)
PRAYER OF PEACE BY THOMAS MERTON
Save us then from our obsessions! Open our eyes, dissipate our confusions, teach us to understand ourselves and our adversary!...
Save us from the compulsion to follow our adversaries in all that we most hate, confirming them in their hatred and suspicion of us. Resolve our inner contradictions, which now grow beyond belief and beyond bearing.....Teach us to be long-suffering in anguish and insecurity.
Teach us to wait and trust.
Grant light, grant strength and patience to all who work for peace,
To this Congress, our President, our military forces, and our adversaries.
Grant us prudence in proportion to our power,
Wisdom in proportion to our science,
Humaneness in proportion to our wealth and might.
And bless our earnest will to help all races and peoples to travel, in friendship with us,
Along the road of justice, liberty and everlasting peace:
Grant us to seek peace where it is truly found!
In your will, O God, is our peace !
Amen
Labels: Prayer for Peace, Thomas Merton
posted by Dan Phillips @ 8:37 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Thomas Merton had such a way with words and emotions! What a nice blog to find and have such rich resources at our fingertips! Thank you!
I just published a prayer on my blog which I wrote inspired by one of Merton's more famous ones.
I second that -and would like to add what a blessing that that we (humanity) can be inspired by one another to draw on our inner resourcefulness, only to discover there is no 'individual' mind or heart only the Song of the One Soul.
Prayer is a form of Invocation -as each individual merges his/her essence within the Universal Heart-we add our little voice within the great Chain of Being.
Have you heard of The Great Invocation-if you are interested you might like to follow the link by tapping in Lucis Trust.org
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