The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the fear and panic as well as the tragic suffering and death occurring around our planet. At the same time it is revealing the good will efforts of countless people and organizations working to combat this invisible killer. At its core however, COVID-19 underscores more than ever that we are a world community that is profoundly connected across race, religion, gender, geography and nationality.
The paradox at the heart of this crisis is that we are asked to help one another by not congregating together. The need to come together, to reconcile with one another is fundamentally human but in this unique moment the Fellowship of Reconciliation offers up the best alternative we know to encourage hope and solidarity…prayer.
We invite you to reflect on the prayers below and to offer up your own by sending them to us at prayers@forusa.org. We will be updating our wagingnonviolence.org page with the prayers submitted.
Prayer for guidance and well being for all life on Earth.
Assalaamu Alaikum & Peace be upon us all,
🌾Thank you so much for sharing these amazing spiritual and peaceful and beautiful and soothing Duas (prayers). Ameen to each and every Dua. May Allah Subhanawata’alah Praiseworthy God bless the whole of humanity with healing and cure from this evil disease.
Ameen Ya Rabbul Aalameen 🌺
Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
Brilliant
Is FOR still headquartered in Upper Nyack? I knew many of the folks there back in the sixties and seventies…all very gentle, kind people.
Hi Mary. Thanks for your comment. FOR is now located at the Stony Point Center in Stony Point NY.
Many thanks Michael. Please feel free to add your own. Be safe.
Many thanks Paul. Please feel free to share. Be safe.
Thanks Rafath. Prayers are all welcome.
Hi Paul. We will be including Lynn Unger’s great prayer.