22/06/2025
A Prayer for Peace in a World at War
by Father Christopher Vorderbruggen
Lord God of heaven and earth,
You see what we often choose not to see.
You hear the cries beneath the bombs,
the silence of the buried, the scattered prayers of the wounded.
We come to You now, not from a battlefield,
but from our own safe homes—
with food in the pantry, and light in our rooms.
And still, Lord, we dare to pray.
We lift before You the wars burning across the world:
The ones that fill headlines, and the ones the cameras have forgotten.
We name no sides tonight—only Your image, broken and bleeding,
in every mother running with her child,
in every elderly man who cannot flee,
in every soldier who weeps when no one is watching.
Lord, we pray especially tonight for the leaders of the world—
those who have power to make peace or prolong war.
We pray for courage—not to win, but to choose life.
We pray for humility—not to dominate, but to listen.
We pray for wisdom—not to get everything they want,
but to finally say, “enough.”
Teach them what every parent already knows—
that no one gets everything in a negotiation,
and that to save a child’s life is worth laying down a thousand claims.
We pray for the leaders at the heart of conflict—
and also for those outside the battlefield:
the United States, the United Kingdom, France,
and the nations of Europe and beyond—
all those who hold a seat at the table,
and whose silence or pressure may shape the fate of millions.
Lord, bend their hearts to mercy.
Let them put people before pride.
Let them see human beings before strategies.
For the sick and the displaced, for the children who no longer cry,
for the mothers who have buried their sons,
for the elderly who have no one left—
Lord, have mercy.
And for us, Lord, who live far from the fire:
give us compassion that costs something,
prayers that burn,
and a heart that refuses to forget.
Prince of Peace,
come.
Not in abstraction, but in history.
Not only in our souls, but in this wounded world.
We are tired of blood.
We are tired of war.
And we know You are too.
Amen.