Ecumenical prayer for Holy Land monthly

We are invited to pray with and for our sisters and brothers in the Holy Land who have called for an ecumenical prayer vigil across the globe on the 24th of every month. Lutheran World Federation (LWF) shared prayers for healing, justice, and hope to use with the monthly observance in the month of August – available in a pdf file from the “Extras” page. More about the Prayer Vigil for the Christian communities in Palestine and Israel, for all those who are suffering in the Holy Land, for Palestinians and Israelis, and for peace in the Middle East and the world linked from http://lwfjerusalem.org/. Shared in a 10/23/14 LWF email:

A Prayer for Gaza

After the sounds of bombs,
the crash of tumbling stone to rubble,
and the cries of the wounded and grieving,
let voices be lifted in prayer.

When shrapnel has broken flesh,
as even cemeteries and schools lie ruined
and streets and houses are turned to dust,
may there be hope stirring somehow still.

After parents have lifted children from rubble,
seen businesses built over years destroyed,
and ambulances without room for all the injured,
help us still to believe that change will come.

May peace be our prayer and our pledge,
and open our lips to protest and press
for the different sound
of a justice-shaped peace,
so that the streets and stones,
may ring with the sounds of a new freedom,
and all wounds be healed.

Prayer contributed by Christian Aid UK