Nuclear Prayers...
Below are some beautiful Nuclear Prayers by religious leaders and beyond. If you have a Nuclear Prayer to share with us, we would love to receive it and share it with others. Email this to us at contact@voices-uri.org. Thank you!
A Nuclear Prayer
Click HERE to download "A Nuclear Prayer". In the video above, you are invited to view the unfolding of this prayer recited by Voice's Founding Members:
• The Honorable William J. Perry, former Secretary of Defense under President Clinton
• The Honorable George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State under President Reagan​
• Dr. Sidney Drell, Professor Emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
• Ambassador James E. Goodby, former Strategic Nuclear Arms Negotiator with the U.S.S.R.​
• Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr, former Senior U.S. Diplomat
• Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute
• Monica Willard, United Religions Initiative Representative to the United Nations
• The Right Rev. William E. Swing, former Episcopal Bishop of California, and President & Founder of the United Religions Initiative
Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons is part of the United Religions Initiative; an international nonprofit that brings together people of all faiths and traditions to solve the problems facing our world as a whole.
When a former Secretary of State, a former Secretary of Defense, several United States Ambassadors, a famous physicist, and a few friends pray each month for the elimination of nuclear weapons, it raises lots of questions. What do they know that everyone needs to know? Why are they praying? What is their prayer? Download it HERE.
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A NUCLEAR PRAYER
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The Beginning and the End are in your hands, O Creator of the Universe. And in our hands you have placed the fate of this planet.
We, who are tested by having both creative and destructive power in our free will, turn to you in sober fear and in intoxicating hope.
We ask for your guidance and to share in your imagination in our deliberations about the use of nuclear force.
Help us to lift the fog of atomic darkness that hovers so pervasively over our Earth, Your Earth, so that soon all eyes may see life magnified by your pure light.
Bless all of us who wait today for your Presence and who dedicate ourselves to achieve your intended peace and rightful equilibrium on Earth. In the Name of all that is holy and all that is hoped.
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Amen.​
THAT NAGASAKI BE THE LAST USE OF A NUCLEAR WEAPON
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To eliminate these devices, the apex of creative evil, and all devices of massive indiscriminate death, please guide us.
Each of us came into this world responding to our mother’s love.
Each came seeking family and love.
Each of us became identified with nation, race, gender, religion, and forgot we are one human family and every person is as precious as we are
But still in the stillness in our hearts remains a light of the soul, seeking, resonating and longing for that love that brought us here into this world
That love awakens and informs our universal humanity and awakens hearts without borders
Intelligence has given us insights into the wondrous secrets of matter, energy, space and time
Fear, ignorance, arrogance, pride, hatred and differences have led us to use these insights to create devices of incomprehensible power to inflict indescribable horrific suffering
Please, Dear Lord of All, Creator of every life, every heartbeat, every moment, every leaf, blade of grass, every one of us, and universes and galaxies beyond counting,
Glorious Source of Love and Life, forgive us for forgetting
You and Your blessings Friend within all friendship,
Love within all loves, Life within all lives, witness of all and everything, bless us with the wisdom that comes from compassion such that we will skillfully eliminate these devices of death and use the gift of intelligence to serve to heal, sustain, harmonize, understand, and glorify You, our humanity, and honor Your creation
To end the suffering of poverty, to protect nature, to love one another, remove the ignorance from our hearts
Grant us hearts of gratitude, courage, and love such that we will not falter in bringing peace, justice, beauty, and unity to Your human family
Help us eliminate these devices of death and the motives from which we create them
Please guide us in beautiful ways of peace such that we can be witnesses of Your Goodness
Guide us with compassion, kindness and love that we might become fully human.
All praises are Yours.
Amen.
- Jonathan Granoff
President Global Security Institute and Voices Founding Member.
THE CHILDREN’S NUCLEAR PRAYER
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In St. Petersburg Russia a little girl kneels by her bed at night to say a prayer.
In St. Petersburg, Florida a little boy kneels by his bed to say a prayer.
They use the same words:
“Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake I pray to the Lord my soul to take.”
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What could possibly cause the death of a Russian child and an American child at night as they sleep?
​The answer hovers over their beds in the dark swirling around the world and the aimed at them nuclear weapons.
The nightmare, the promises that a child could die before I wake.
The children will never see the weapons. The War Heads are hiding in submarines underwater. Some are underground and unapproachable, but they are real practically invisible, They are part of a secret and dark universe that has been created to destroy the world if need be in the name of security.
PRAYER FOR AN END TO NUCLEAR WEAPONS
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Peaceful God,
We come to you from the midst of a broken world where nations raise weapons against nations and mothers and children are the innocent victims of violence.
We cry out for peace!
Wise God,
Share your wisdom with the leaders of the world who continue to stockpile dangerous weapons, giving other countries the incentive to do the same, despite their commitment to the Nuclear-Non-Proliferation Treaty. We pray for the ability to overcome our brokenness, cooperating, instead of competing, across borders and boundaries.
We cry out for peace!
God of Comfort,
It is hard to believe that our own country has refused to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, weakening its legitimacy and making our world less safe.
We cry out for peace!
Tender God, Lover of Children,
It is incomprehensible to us that cluster munitions are still acceptable for use in war, despite the terror they wreak upon unsuspecting children and other civilians during war and for many years afterwards.
We cry out for peace!
Healing God,
So many communities have been left in ruins as a result of the destruction of war. We pray for the healing and rebuilding of communities torn apart by war and violence.
We cry out for peace!
God, Father and Mother of this world, we pray that you would inspire us to create a peaceful world. Help us call our leaders to accountability and to remind them that more weapons and war do not bring peace. Make us a peaceful people in a peaceful world. Amen.
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Source: Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
From the Center of Concern’s Education for Justice Project
EARTH DAY PRAYER
Thurs., April 22, 2021 - Rev. Lauren Van Ham
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Creator, Source, Spirit of Life, we call upon the brilliance of evolution, the miraculous force that inspires rocks to become breath. Just as You have turned caterpillars into butterflies, grant us the courage to metamorphose. Awaken in us the curiosity we need to evolve wisely and respond in this present moment.
Help us to recognize the actions of our short lives as integral and worthy within the billions of years past and the future generations to come. Cradle us in the cycle of life, so that we might fearlessly embrace and honor, with trust and grace, the sacred processes that carry us through birth, death and rebirth. And finally, please fill us with a generosity like the Sun’s so that our activism, practice and efforts might be imbued with endurance and joy.
May Earth and all Creation feel our renewed and ongoing care for Her today. In Your many holy names we pray, Blessed Be and So it Is.
CANTICLE OF CREATION
1225 A.D. - St. Francis of Assisi
Be praised Good Lord for Brother Sun
who brings us each new day.
Be praised for Sister Moon: white beauty bright and fair,
with wandering stars she moves through the night.
Be praised my Lord for Brother Wind,
for air and clouds and the skies of every season.
Be praised for Sister Water: humble, helpful, precious, pure;
she cleanses us in rivers and renews us in rain.
Be praised my Lord for Brother Fire: he purifies and enlightens us.
Be praised my Lord for Mother Earth:
abundant source, all life sustaining;
she feeds us bread and fruit and gives us flowers.
Be praised my Lord for gift of life;
for changing dusk and dawn;
for touch and scent and song.
AN UTE PRAYER
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Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
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THROUGH THE SILENCE OF NATURE
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Through the silence of nature,
I attain Thy divine peace.
0 sublime nature,
in thy stillness let my heart rest.
Thou art patiently awaiting the moment
to manifest through the silence of sublime nature.
0 nature sublime, speak to me through silence,
for I am awaiting in silence like you the call of God.
0 nature sublime,
through thy silence I hear Thy cry.
My heart is tuned to the quietness,
that the stillness of nature inspires.
The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possession of atomic weapons is immoral.