Come and fill our hearts with your peace. You alone, O Lord, are holy.
Come and fill our hearts with your peace. Alleluia. 

~"Come and Fill Our Hearts," TFWS #2157

Draw the Circle Wide: A Service for the International Day of Peace

For the last several years, Saint John's has celebrated the annual International Day of Peace. Designed by the Passionate Worship Committee, a very inspiring service, Draw the Circle Wide, will take place this Wednesday, September 18, at 6:30 p.m., in the Chapel. 

In a time when the events of the world can bring inner anxiety and turmoil, I believe there is real power in a church family coming together to strengthen our hopes for a more peaceful world. Join us for a time of inspirational poems and special scriptures. This year we have chosen familiar songs like "Come and Fill our Hearts" and "I've Got Peace Like a River" so that everyone can freely sing along. Rev. Lynn Barton will be supporting our singing with his beautiful guitar playing. Filled with readings and songs that will enliven and center our prayers, this service will help to harness our collective spirit of peace in hopes that we can then release it back into the world.

Along with word and song, this service will also include times of silent meditation. During these moments, we can be still with our own thoughts, pondering the meanings of familiar songs or being open to a new understanding of something that has been said or sung. In this way, we can allow our own experience to resonate more deeply.  

One of the most important aspects of this service is the act of coming together to go deep into our prayers and songs. Really, it is so simple: Just gather. Just come and listen, and be reminded of the power of words, songs, silence, and mostly, the power of being drawn in together. Rather than forgetting the troubles of the world, let these carefully chosen words and songs reassure us of what we know so deeply: God hears our prayers for a peaceful world. 

Pope Francis' Prayer for Peace

Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!

We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain.

Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: "Never again war!"; "With war everything is lost". Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.

Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness.

Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words "division", "hatred" and "war" be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be "brother", and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam!

Amen.

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