Oh God,
How many times must I pray for peace?
Despite all my prayers I see Gazan schools blown apart, lives shattered as people sought refuge and prayed.
I see hostages held and their families suffering every endless minute that they wait for release.
Why, oh why, oh God do my pleas fall on deaf ears, my tears rebound off stony ground and my hope falter under the sheer weight of death, destruction and devastation? Are you immune to this human suffering?
Yet, I know that your tears fall with mine, your hope is tested by the inhumanity of this current conflict and you yearn for that time when the wolf will lie down with the lamb, a time when they will not seek to hurt or destroy each other on your holy mountain.
So I pray again with all my heart for a ceasefire in Gaza, a release for the hostages and for a just solution that peace may flourish in the land where you walked.
Amen.