Prayer

Editor’s note: This will be part of a Holy Week prayer service at the Federal Building in Worcester.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, under the inspiratrion of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, who gave his life to denounce an unjust war, on the fifth anniversary of the latest US escalation of its 17-year-long war on Iraq, we gather to beg Your forgiveness for the sin of this war and to ask for Your grace to end it now. We make these prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Amen.

For the over 88,000 Iraqi citizens killed since 2003, we pray:
Lord, have mercy.

For the 4,100 US soldiers killed in Iraq since 1991, we pray:
Christ, have mercy.

For the 200,000 Iraqis killed in the first Gulf War, we pray:
Lord, have mercy.

For the 1.5 million Iraqis, including 800,000 children, killed by US-sponsored sanctions between 1991 and 2002, we pray:
Kyrie, eleison.

For the thousands of Iraqis killed by “no-fly zone” bombings between 1991 and 2002, we pray:
Christe, eleison.

For our failure to speak out more forcefully against the sin of this long war on Iraq, we pray:
Kyrie, eleison.

Recalling that Pope John Paul II called war on Iraq “useless slaughter” and “unjust, immoral, and illegal,” we pray the rosary to Mary, Queen of Peace, that the ears of all those in the federal government might finally be opened to attend to the plea of millions of Americans who want the war to end now.

Pray a rosary:

The First Sorrowful Mystery: Christ’s agony in the garden.
Help us to end the agony of the Iraqi people and to return all American soldiers safely home.

The Second Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus is scourged.
Help us to end the torture our nation continues to inflict on prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere.

The Third Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus is crowned with thorns.
Help us to never again drop cluster bombs, depleted uranium, and other weapons onto the heads of the Iraqi people.

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus carries the Cross.
Help us to take up Christ’s cross of nonviolent love (even at the risk of criticism and jail) to end the Iraq War.

The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus dies on the Cross.
Help us to love our enemies as profoundly as Christ did from his Cross and to reject this and all wars.

Close with the Salve Regina.

Let us pray.

1

God, we thank you for the commandments
passed down to us in the Hebrew tradition,
in which Jesus was immersed.

Help us to be brought to you,
yet again to you,
yet closer to you,
when we hear the Shema:
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God! The Lord is One!”

Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
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Verse 11: “The woman said to [Jesus],
‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.
Where do you get that living water?’” (John 4:11, NRSV)

God, sometimes we take it for granted when we turn on a tap,
forgetting that, for most people in the world, water is hard to come by.
We thank you for the aqueducts and reservoirs that supply our water,
and we remember the jars on women’s heads in faraway lands.
Give us patience and wisdom when we run short of water.
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As Roman Catholics who love the Church, we listened closely to Pope John Paul II who called the 2003 Iraq War “a defeat for humanity” and to Pope Benedict XVI who said, “There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq,” and went on to say, “We should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a just war.”

We remember that, despite the Vatican’s clear opposition to the Iraq War, only one American Bishop, Most Rev. John Michael Botean, condemned it. In a 2003 Lenten Pastoral Letter, Bishop Botean called the Iraq War “objectively grave evil, a matter of mortal sin.”

On March 19, the Iraq War will enter its fifth year. More than 150,000 Iraqi civilians and nearly 4,000 American soldiers have perished. Hundreds of thousands of our sisters and brothers have been injured, orphaned, or left homeless.

We cannot help but wonder if this war could have been prevented with a stronger voice of opposition from all of us in the American Catholic Church. We admit our own complicity by our failure to raise our own voices more forcefully. But, even now, we believe that the voice of our Church can help end the bloodshed.

Therefore, inspired by the witness of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, we join concerned Catholics in twelve other dioceses around the United States to call for a Lenten prayer and fast for peace. Like Jagerstatter, the only known Roman Catholic to refuse service in Hitler’s military during World War II, we believe that the Church must not stay “silent in the face of what is happening.” Starting on Ash Wednesday, we invite all people of conscience to join us at Saint Paul’s Cathedral for midday Mass each weekday, followed by a peace vigil outside the church and, shortly thereafter, at the nearby United States Federal Building. We will conclude our prayer and fasting during Holy Week on March 19th with a special Catholic peace witness at the Federal Building.

We hope and pray that this witness in Worcester and other dioceses around the country will draw the Church closer to the nonviolent Christ and help our nation to end the Iraq War and Occupation.

God, on this Sunday after the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity,
we again thank you for your Church;
and for our sisters and brothers united in your son, Jesus Christ,
who taught us to pray to you as our father in heaven.

Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
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Let us pray.

God, we thank you for the promise of Jesus, that
“there is no one who has given up
house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions,
and eternal life in the age to come.” (Mark 10:29-30)

Teach us when it is appropriate to run away from persecution,
but if our witness for you
is to involve suffering or even death at the hands of others,
O God, give us strength and courage.
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42 people gathered outside South Bend’s Paramount Restaurant last night for a prayer vigil remembering Jan Griffiths, who was run over by Keith Romine earlier this week outside the restaurant, killing her. This restaurant is practically right around the corner from the Catholic Worker house in South Bend where I’m staying.

Also struck was Derrick Herron. According to Tribune reports, Ms. Griffiths was staying at the Center for the Homeless, fleeing a “domestic violence” situation caused by Mr. Herron. Ms. Griffiths had previously been dating Mr. Romine, who she met at the Center, and who was released from prison last December after serving 24 years for killing his wife.

Mr. Romine had been staying at Dismas House, a couple doors down from the CW, but was kicked out and moved to the Center.

A sordid and sadly ironic tale.

After a reading of the 91st Psalm at last night’s vigil, there were words of praise for the Sheriff and the security staff at the Center. But no Sheriff or security staff was there to keep Ms. Griffiths from being killed. Any of us could die at any moment. Nobody with a gun can offer us real security or real safety. Some of us find these things in religion; others do without.

Karen Marie wrote:

My favorite prayer tool is a little tabloid called “2006 Milwaukee Archdiocesan Directory”. Twenty five-column pages of a long list of names and places. I’ve been caught by others with it a few times, and tried to explain how a long list of names becomes prayer. Not very effectively.

She later clarified what she meant, but not before speculation ran wild.
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Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.

1.
God,
our sustainer,
healer,
and comforter,
thank you for giving us
the gift of life
and the gift of time.

Thank you for giving us winter,
when we are most aware of our individuality;
when we remember how we are responsible for ourselves
and how we should take care of one another.

Thank you for giving us winter,
when we crave for the warm places
and the company of close friends;
when we remember friends afar
and want to get in touch with them again.

Help our immune systems in this season —
help us to care for ourselves and for one another,
so we may be strong to do your work.

Lord, in your mercy, HEAR OUR PRAYER.
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