Opening:
Let my heart rise up to meet mercy, my voice to meet compassion, my hands to meet action.
BIBOLove: Breath In, Breath Out--humm
Music:
Boom Boom Bam, by La TlaTeh (a Syrian rap group)
"This song is loaded with metaphors and smilies. It is vivid and very strong. The theme is explosive, quite literally. A car bomb exploded in one of Damascus’s streets. Two young men begin to speak of their after-death experience as their souls roam the street after the explosion. It begins with a young man laying on the ground, wondering about his surroundings till he realizes he is dead, so he sits and waits till others join the death train. The next verse, sung by Watar, explains how he went out to bring some bread and a pack of cigarettes but never made it back home in one piece.
The chorus begins with “boom boom bam” as a metaphor for the bombings the city is going through, “the nights of Sham, we do not sleep, we do not sleep.” Then Bu Kolthoum begins to describe what he sees as he lays on the ground wondering, “wasn’t our neighbour’s building here yesterday?” "
From Nour Al-Ali
Can't You Feel Their Pain by Brian Crandall
More Souls will be Lost in Syria today
The unfortunate ones
Who could not get away
Some believe we're all connected
In a mysterious sort of way
A conscious universe
Where humans and animals
and even mother earth
Communicate each day
If this is true
When others suffer
When they cry for help, in vain
Can't You Feel Their Pain?
Tens of thousands killed
By a murderous regime
Is there nothing we can do?
We hear the echo from their screams
Villages burned
And the people are slaughtered
When ISIS comes to town
To kill the men
And rape the daughters
When others suffer
When they cry for help, in vain
Can't You Feel Their Pain?
They flee on foot
They run for their lives
If they don't drown in the water
They seek asylum
In desperation to survive
Some nations grant them refuge
With help, a sense of pride
While others put up fences
Access is denied
When others suffer
When they cry for help, in vain
Can't You Feel Their Pain?
This should not be a world of divided people
A world of 'Us, versus Them'
When we create a man-made border
We create a situation where violence will stem
We are all related
We are one human race
Let us help one another
Abandon violence, and disgrace
When others suffer
When they cry for help, in vain
We must unite and work together
To take away their pain
reprinted with permission
Scripture Readings
Isaiah 54:1-13
Revelation 21:1-7
Psalm 148 (Daily)
Death will be no more; Mourning no more, crying no more, pain no more, for the first things have gone away.
Please bring your own sacred readings to the daily pattern. Those selected here are chosen from the Christian scripture cycle of daily readings, the Daily Lectionary, at commontexts.org
Prayers
2015.12.28
For the oppressed and weary
Especially for #blacklivesmatter and
for the LGBTQIAP community.
For despair of violence,
for those who die in war
especially those in Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Barundi, and Afghanistan
for the earth crying out against harm
especially for the "acid train" derailed in Australia
and those cities in Italy banning cars due to smog
for those who misuse their authority
especially for the family in Pennsylvania whose dog was shot
for those in Corsica affected by the desecration of a mosque
For the hope of peace,
for women recovering from the forced participation in the sex trade
especially for WWII Comfort Women
for 26 days, in the US, of no mass shootings
For stateless people and migrants
For those who suffer, are homeless, or are sick
For those we love, those we hate and those we are indifferent to
For the transformation from ME to WE
Let peace prevail on earth.
So mote it be.
News Notes:
Mass shooting resource: http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2015
Prayer cycle of the world's countries resource: http://www.oikoumene.org/en
Lord’s Prayer
Translation by Neil Douglas Klotz, Sufi
O Birther! Creator of the Cosmos,
Focus your light within us— make it useful:
Create your reign of unity now-
Your one desire then acts with ours,
as in all light, so in all forms.
Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
as we release the strands we hold
of others’ guilt.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
the power and the life to do,
the song that beautifies all,
from age to age it renews.
Truly— power to these statements—
may they be the ground from which all
my actions grow: Amen.
May Peace Prevail on Earth. Amen. So mote it be.
…
Notes:
"Amen" means "may it be so."
"May peace prevail on earth." is an addition inspired by Michael Dickel
BIBOLove is an addition attributed to the work of Soyinka Rahim, InterPlay practice, BIBOLove
