Week of October 25-31
HOPE FOR A WORLD WITHOUT WAR AND VIOLENCE

Prayer:
Holy and Loving God,
we ask for your forgiveness for the sins committed in our name:
for our brothers and sisters around the world who suffer because of our prosperity;
for the children who hunger and thirst for a chance at life;
for the violence we see and hear everyday in our streets, our homes, and our words;
for the hate, war and pain in our world.

We ask your forgiveness for our passivity, for not standing up when we know we could have
done so and for not always being true to the nonviolent example that Jesus presented to us.

Holy and Loving God, you have said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
Give us the strength to be peacemakers in these times:
when fear is everywhere, when lies are accepted,
when lives are in danger, when war and violence plague our world.

Holy and Loving God, we ask for continued hope for a world without war and violence.

Amen

Reflection:
When addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Pope Paul VI stated, “No more war, war never again!  Peace, it is peace which must guide the destinies of people and of all [human kind] “(1965). This message is clearly stated; still there is much violence and war our world. This means that we must work harder, creating peace within ourselves and spreading it from our neighbors to our leaders.

Catholic Social Teaching states that, “The church cannot accept violence, especially the force of arms – which is uncontrollable once it is let loose – and indiscriminate death as the path to liberation...” (Pope Paul VI, On Evangelization in the Modern World).  The U.S. has gone to war in search of Weapons of Mass Destruction, (has found none in Iraq) when we could have found WMD’s in our own backyard.  How can we expect other nations to stop proliferation while we are not disarming here at home?

ACTION SUGGESTIONS: Take one or more of the following actions this week as preparation for the election:
1.  Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate at a press conference said this about people who spoke out against the violence in Iraq stated, “The true spirit of the American people and human family by crying out no to violence, no to war and no to the killing of our Iraqi brothers and sisters, and yes to dialogue and negotiations, yes to life and love and justice and forgiveness”.

• How can we lift up/support the work of local peacemakers in our local communities?
• How can we move forward a U.S. foreign policy that truly believes in dialogue, negotiations and peacemaking?

• Examine each candidate’s plan to stop nuclear proliferation.
• What is each candidates plan for disarmament here in the United States?

Resources:

• Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate and Co-founder of Peace People Northern Ireland, was recently in Chicago to attend the trial of the Boeing 7 who were arrested trying to stop the war in Iraq. Chicago, October 4, 2004.
• Pope Paul VI, “On Evangelization in the Modern World” (1975), #37 United Nations General Assembly, Pope Paul VI, 1965