CICM Missionaries in Manila prepared this service for peace in East Timor and in the southern Philippines. We have slightly adapted it. It is particularly suitable for Lent as we pray for the healing of our broken world and our broken country.  

All: (Please stand) Bless your people, Lord, who have walked too long in this night of pain. For the child has no more tears to cry, the old people no song of joy to sing, and the blood of your youth drains away in the gutters. The cry from the Cross is heard throughout the land. The pain in His nailed hands is carried by the worker. Terrible thirst is in the throat of the farmer. Too many women mourn the loss of their sons. And all the earth is turned into another Calvary. With your spirit, Father, we cry for peace. With your Spirit we struggle to be free. Bless us with the wisdom of our ancestors and the courage of our martyrs, that the resurrection of Jesus may be ours to claim and all people embrace the earth in the harmony of peace springing from justice. Amen.

A reading from the book of Exodus 3: 7-12

(Moment of silent reflection)

RESPONSORY

Leader: I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated (Ex 3:7)

All: Create in us an awareness, O God. Awaken us to a sense of urgency.

Leader: I have heard them cry out to be rescued from slavery (Ex 3:7).

All: Let us hearken to your voice, O God. Alert us to your promptings.
Leader: I have come down to rescue them and bring them out to the land rich and fertile.

All: O God, stretch your saving hand and hear today the cry of your poor.

Leader: Let us stand and sing: The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

A reading from the Holy gospel according to Matthew (Mt. 5:1-10)

Leader: Xanana Gusmāo, now first president of East Timor, once asked his people to courageously defend themselves without resorting to violence in retaliation – a tall order!

Recognizing the violence in our own hearts, yet trusting in the goodness and mercy of God, we pray that all may be inspired and touched by the nonviolence of Jesus who taught us in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons and daughters of God. You have learned how it was said, ‘You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy’, but I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In this way you will be daughters and sons of your Creator in heaven.’”

May I invite you to a pledge of nonviolence…(All)

Before god the Creator and Sanctifying Spirit, I vow to carry out in my life the love and example of Jesus:

- by striving for peace within myself and seeking to be a peacemaker in my daily life;

- by accepting suffering rather than inflicting it;

- by refusing to retaliate in the face of provocation and violence;

- by persevering in nonviolence of tongue and heart;

- by living conscientiously and simply so that I do not deprive others of the means to live;

- by actively resisting evil and working nonviolently to abolish war and the causes of war from my own heart and from the face of the earth.

God, I trust in your sustaining love and believe that just as You gave me the grace and desire to offer this, so You will also bestow abundant grace to fulfill it.