A Prayer for God’s beloved children of Israel and Palestine & for our own grief: 

Lord, we pray for all your children in Israel and Palestine, for the children and adults living in fear, for the hardened harts of those who have dehumanized the other: 

We pray hearts would quickly soften with a sense of overwhelming love. Would you turn vengeance into compassion? Hate into hope?

God, quickly provide a miraculous resolution to this violence. 

We pray for the families and parents that have lost their children, and the children who have lost their families.

Lord, bring quick comfort and help today in the form of love, shelter, nourishment, safety, care and protection. 

We pray that this cycle of violence would end. 

For those of us who do not know what to do: Lord, help us to share our grief with one another. Help us to not go numb from feeling our own powerlessness or our own overwhelm. Help us to not shut down our humanity. 

Show us today, Lord, how to love our neighbors, how to find those who are in pain and offer comfort; to offer our presence, to offer our prayers. 

Remind us of who is in our lives that we can love well today: Our Jewish friends, Our Palestinian friends, all those in pain. 

Empower us to love bigger and to reach out more. 

Help us to breathe deeply today, and every day forthcoming. Help us to pray continuously, to remember we are not alone in our grief, in our fears, and in our anger. 

Remind us you are here with us, God. You hold space for us to feel and you comfort us as well as those in danger. This violence is bigger than we are, but it is no bigger than you, God. 

Help us to remember you are here. 

You care. 

You are present. 

You are love. 

Help us to love as you do. 

Amen.