Customer Reviews

Peace Prayers: Meditations, Affirmations, Invocations, Poems, and Prayers for Peace

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The photos in this book of wisdom are ethereal. Short but poignant meanings of peace are accompanied by photo collages to soothe the soul. If everyone read just one page of this book each day, world peace might be possible.

I only find the excellent photo on the cover, seen here, and no others. I do find a comprehensive collection worldwide of religious and political statements in support of peace, following the definition of war.

We find here the bloody General Sherman"s complete statement of war as hell, Mark Twain"s posthumously published ironic War Prayer, though not in its entirety, Ben Franklin declaring there has never been a bad peace nor a good war, Dwight Eisenhower"s statements, although I could not find Washington"s similar Farewell Address warning against the machinations of the arms manufactories and urging peace with all nations and peoples.

We also find nearly every Catholic saint and scholar, beginning with all relevant quotes of Jesus, particularly from The Gospel of Luke. We read the very ancient former soldier Saint Martin of Tours declaring that as he is a Christian soldier he cannot fight. Of course we read the prayer ascribed to Saint Francis of Assissi but also interesting statements by several other saints, including Saint Catherine of Sienna and Saint Teresa of Avila. We also read from other world religions, including of course the Buddhist admired by Father Thomas Merton, but also compelling quotes from the Koran.

In short, this book which, although the photo appears to be of coffee table book size, actually fits into any adequate jacket pocket, provides a rich buffet feeding contemplation of the need and necessity of peace. The several quotes alone from Mother Theresa and Archbishop Oscar Romero provide ample nourishment for any prayer meeting for peace, as our Lord commands. Blessed are the Peacemakers. Peace on Earth. I would have sought more words from Pope John XXIII, etc. but let us be grateful for the comprehensive text of peace which we here find so inexpensively, yet of such great value.

Read it and carry it with you always. Share it with those you most love and inoffensively with those who offend you as an act of pardoning in line with the Lord"s Prayer and the quote from the Koran bidding peace to those who insult us. Normally such quotes removed from context are questionable, but here they are well selected and arranged and often quite lengthy, prepared by the Harper editorial staff in shocked response to the beginning Iraqi war over fifteen years ago and which still grinds on.

We cannot afford not to read this book, as a species, as a nation, as families, as individuals in need of peace and of salvation. Most touching here are the powerful words of the late great Etty Hillesum, who said on the way to Auschwitz that even this forced removal to certain cruel death cannot reach within her and disturb her solid centering in peace and in life.

A Catholic friend gave me (a Unitarian Universalist) a copy of this book recently, and told me she'd received it as a gift from another friend whom I know to be Presbyterian. My point is that the book is entirely ecumenical, with quotations from the Judaeo-Christian Bible, the Qu'ran, Buddhist, Tao and Hindu texts, Native American spirituality, the Friends, and more.

The collection goes beyond prayer into poetry, essay and aphormism. The writings of clergy, from male and female authors, represent wide-world religions including my own UU faith. As another reviewer observed, there's plenty of wisdom from Catholic saints and scholars of all eras. Baptist writer Jim Wallis, editor of "Sojourners", may be the most-quoted single individual, but Mark Twain, a sturdy Agnostic, is in this collection, too. There's nothing narrow-minded or "holy joe" about it--just practical spiritual wisdom.

My only disappointment, as a part-Shawnee Medievalist, was that the editors overlooked the most approachable of all Medieval mystics--Juliane of Norwich and Sufi poet Rumi--and the prayer of Shawnee chief Tecumseh.

Poets range from ancient Greece, Rome, Japan and China through Walt Whitman and our own unofficial UU saint, Henry Thoreau, to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Denise Levertov.

Topics encompass ALL aspects of peace, including the necessity for justice and stewardship of all nature. The great surprise for me was that Rupert Murdoch, the active enemy of every spiritual value this book stands for, allowed it to be published. Perhaps it got by because it came out soon after Harper Collins was formed. I can only hope and pray that Mr. Murdoch might read it.