"A Prayer from Apollo 8 for Universal Peace"

On Christmas Day (25 December 1968), astronaut Frank Borman broadcast the following prayer from Apollo 8*:

“Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure.
Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness.
Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts.
And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.
Amen.”

*(taken from the “Justice Prayers” section of Xavier.edu’s “Jesuit Resources” page)

A Prayer for World Peace, 1978

“We pray for the power to be gentle;
the strength to be forgiving;
the patience to be understanding;
and the endurance to accept the consequences
of holding on to what we believe to be right.

May we put our trust in the power of good to overcome evil and the power of love to overcome hatred.”

We pray for the vision to see and the faith to believe in a world emancipated from violence,
a new world where fear shall no longer lead men or women to commit injustice,
nor selfishness make them bring suffering to others.

Help us to devote our whole life and thought and energy
to the task of making peace,
praying always for the inspiration and the power
to fulfill the destiny for which we and all men and women were created.

- Author Unknown, Offered by Beth Amyot

• Found at Xavier.edu // Jesuit Resource page.

A Jesuit Prayer For Peace

We are moulded, each one of us,
in the image of God,
and within our souls there is a fingerprint
none can erase.
We pray for those who have no regard
for anyone but self,
who put no value on human life.
For nations and individuals who abuse and kill.
We are not called to be judge or jury,
but we are called to be agents of change,
and if the butterfly that flaps its wings
should be our attitude to others
then so be it, Lord,
and may the hurricane this generates
somewhere within the world
reach into the hearts and souls of those
for whom we pray, and reveal to them
how precious are those
for whom they have no love,
and how precious are they
who now bring tears to the eyes of God.”

• Found at Xavier.edu // Jesuit Resource page.
  

A Prayer "For Courage to Do Justice"

“O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others

Open my ears that I may hear their cries;
Open my heart so that they need not be without succor;
Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,
Nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
And use me to bring them to those places.
And so open my eyes and my ears
That I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee.”

- Alan Paton, South Africa, United Methodist Hymnal #456