Weekly Peace Prayer

for August 5, 2025
prepared by
Sister Carmel Little, CSJP

We Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Constitutions:
Christ is our peace, the source of our power.
United with him we engage in the struggle
against the reality of evil and continue the work
of establishing God’s reign of justice and peace. # 2

CSJP Statement on Nuclear Weapons
We, the Congregation of St. Joseph of Peace, an international Congregation,
declare our unconditional resistance to the financing, production,
possession, deployment, and use of nuclear weapons.
In solidarity with all peacemakers we recommit ourselves,
our resources, and our prayers to creating a world
built on justice from which true peace can flourish.   July 2020

Reading:
To remember the past is to commit oneself to the future.
To remember Hiroshima is to abhor nuclear war.
In the face of the…calamity that every war is,
one must affirm and reaffirm again and again,
that the waging of war is not inevitable or unchangeable.
Humanity is not destined to self-destruction.
John Paul II
Peace Making Day by Day, Pax Christi

Quiet Reflection

Psalm 51
Have mercy on us, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out our offense.
O wash us more and more from our guilt
And cleanse us of our sin.

Our offenses truly you know them;
And our sin is before you always.
Against you alone, have we sinned;
And what is evil in your sight we have done.

That you may be justified in your sentence
And be without reproach when you judge.
O see, in guilt we were born,
Sinners were we conceived.

Indeed, you love truth in the heart;
Then in the secret of our hearts teach us wisdom.
O purify us, then we shall be clean;
O wash us and we shall be whiter than snow.

A pure heart create for us, O God,
Put a steadfast spirit within us.
Do not cast us away from your presence,
Nor deprive us of you Holy Spirit.

Quiet Reflection

Reading:   “In a single plea to God and to all men and women of goodwill, on behalf of all the victims of atomic bombings and experiments, and of all conflicts, let us together cry out from our hearts: Never again war, never again the clash of arms, never again so much suffering! May peace come in our time and to our world.”
Pope Francis, November 2019
at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima 

My Heart Cries ★ Hiroshima And Nagasaki
A beautiful day in a most beautiful place
Little children play as the river flows
and a lovely blue sky smiles to see

as sky admires her beautiful reflection
little does blue sky know of pure evil
and soon her tears will fall so black

O' evil rides across her distant horizon
an atrocious evil fast coming to destroy
all the children, the river and blue sky

knowing such evil exists in this world
and knowing what evil has done in 1945
tears are falling, I tear my clothes

I wrap myself in sackcloth, I lay on ashes
as my heart cries endless tears of sorrow
I mourn the children, river and blue sky
* Sunprincess *

Quiet Reflection

Prayer:
Forever and ever, forever and ever
We sing out, we cry out
All nature is one
Forever and ever, forever and ever
Peace on earth, peace on earth
This is our hope, this is our prayer
Peace on earth, peace on earth
This is our hope, this is our prayer.
Song of the Cranes by Children’s Peace Opera
As found in Liturgies for Peace Pax Christi, USA

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