Holy One,

We pray for all people and places that have experienced the terror of violence this week as the aftershocks of fear and grief reverberate through bodies and buildings:

For the 43 people in Beirut and the 129 in Paris who were killed by Daesh;

For the people who survived and are now grieving the loss of people they love—parents, children, lovers, spouses, friends, siblings;

For the untold number of Syrians who have died in retaliation attacks;

For Muslims around the world who are targets of renewed and vicious Islamaphobia; 

We want peace for these people and places, but we do not know how to achieve it. Help us to see with clarity how our own country’s actions have contributed to the violence we see and mourn in the world this week. Let our collective mourning and sense of solidarity drive us deeper into the work for peace in our own country, and let us not feel angry only at Daesh, but also at the political policies and realities that engender extremism.

by Emily Brewer of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship

Read the full prayer by Emily Brewer on the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship blog.

Thank you to the Church of the Epiphany in Louisville, KY for the graphic.

*"Daesh" is used by many opponents of ISIS, in part as a play on the Arabic word meaning to trample down, to crush.