Prayers for Peace From Around the World

Taoist

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
Lao Tse

Shinto

Although the people living
across the ocean
surrounding us, I believe,
are all our brothers and sisters,
why are there constant troubles in this world?
Why do winds and waves rise in the
ocean surrounding us?
I only earnestly wish that the wind will
soon puff away all the clouds which are
hanging over the tops of the mountains.

Buddhist

May I become at all times, both now and forever
A protector for those without protection
A guide for those who have lost their way
A ship for those with oceans to cross
A bridge for those with rivers to cross
A sanctuary for those in danger
A lamp for those without light
A place of refuge for those who lack shelter
And a servant to all in need.
May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind
quickly be freed from their illnesses.
May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free.
May the powerless find power, and may people think of befriending one another.
May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wilderness -
the children, the aged, the unprotected -
Be guarded by beneficent celestials, and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood.

Practice watering seeds of joy and peace and not just seeds of anger and violence,
and the elements of war in all of us will be transformed.

To prevent the next war, we have to practice peace today.
If we establish peace in our hearts and in our ways of looking at things,
war will not come. The only way to stop a war is to have real peace.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Tibetan

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Sarva Shantim Kuru Swaha.
Om and Salutations to She who is the source of all blessings,
Please bring peace to all.

Tara Mantra for Peace

Hindu

From untruth lead us to Truth.
From darkness lead us to Light.
From death lead us to Immortality.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.

Lead me from the unreal to Real;
Lead me from darkness (ignorance) to Light (knowledge)
Lead me from death to Immortality.
Om Peace! Peace!! Peace!!

May all be auspicious;
May all attain peace;
Let there be fullness and contentment all over;
May all be blessed.
Aum peace, peace, peace.

May all the beings in all the worlds be happy.
May all the beings in all the worlds be happy.
May all the beings in all the worlds be happy.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.

Let our aims be common, and your hearts be of one accord,
and all of you be of one mind, so you may live well together.

Rig Veda X.191

I desire neither earthly kingdom, nor even freedom from birth and death.
I desire only the deliverance from grief of all those afflicted by misery.
Oh Lord, lead us from the unreal to the real
from darkness to light from death to immortality.
May there be peace in celestial regions.
May there be peace on earth.
May the waters be appeasing
May herbs be wholesome and may trees and plants bring peace to all.
May all beneficent beings bring peace to us.
May thy wisdom spread peace all through the world.
May all things be a source of peace to all and to me.
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

May the Lord of day grant us peace.
May the Lord of night grant us peace.
May the Lord of sight grant us peace.
May the Lord of might grant us peace.
May the Lord of speech grant us peace.
May the Lord of space grant us peace.
I bow down to Brahman, source of all power.
I will speak the truth and follow the law.
Guard me and my teacher against all harm.
Guard me and my teacher against all harm.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.

May we be nourished by the Divine.
May we pursue these studies with vigor.
May we illumined by these studies.
May we not cavil due to different viewpoints.
Let peace reign in all the three worlds.
Peace, Peace, Blessings and Peace.

It's the action, not the fruit of the action that's important.
You have to do the right thing...
You may never know what results come from your action.
But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

M. K. Gandhi

Oh God, lead us from the
unreal to the Real.
Oh God, lead us from darkness to light.
Oh God, lead us from death to immortality.
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti unto all.
Oh Lord God almighty, may there be peace in celestial regions.
May there be peace on earth.
May the waters be appeasing.
May herbs be wholesome, and may trees and plants bring peace to all.
May all beneficent beings bring peace to us.
May thy Vedic Law propagate peace all through the world.
May all things be a source of peace to us.
And may thy peace itself, bestow peace on all,
and may that peace come to me also.

Sikh

God adjudges us according to our deeds,
not the coat that we wear:
that truth is above everything,
but higher still is truthful living.
Know that we attaineth God when we loveth,
and only that victory
endures in consequences of which no one is defeated.

Jain

Peace and Universal Love is the essence
of the Gospel preached by all the
Enlightened Ones.
The Lord has preached that equanimity
is the Dharma.
Forgive do I creatures all,
and let all creatures forgive me.
Unto all have I amity, and unto none enmity.
Know that violence is the root cause of
all miseries in the world.
Violence, in fact, is the knot of bondage.
"Do not injure any living being."
This is the eternal, perennial, and inalterable
way of spiritual life.
A weapon howsoever powerful it may be,
can always be superseded by a superior one;
but no weapon can, however,
be superior to non-violence and love.

Jewish Prayer

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; may they prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say:
'Peace be within thee.'
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.

Psalm 121

Come let us go up the mountain of
the Lord, that we may walk the
paths of the Most High.
And we shall beat our swords into plough shares,
and our spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation--
neither shall they learn war any more.
And none shall be afraid, for the mouth of the
Lord of Hosts has spoken.

Shabbat Meditation

Let the day come when we turn to the Lord of peace,
when all are a single family doing His will with a perfect heart.
O source of peace, lead us to peace, a peace profound and true;
lead us to a healing, to mastery of all that drives us to war within ourselves
and with others.
Lord of peace, bless us with peace.

Rabbi Herman Schaalman

Christian

Lord, make me an instrument
Of thy peace, where there is hatred,
Let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that
I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in forgiving that we
Are forgiven, and it is in dying
That we are born to eternal life.

Prayer of St. Francis

Blessed are the PEACEMAKERS,
for they shall be known as the Children of God.
But I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
To those who strike you on the cheek, offer the other also,
and from those who take away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well.
Give to everyone who begs from you,
and of those who take away your goods, do not ask them again.
And as you wish that others would do to you, so do to them.

Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peace makers,
for they will be called sons of God.

Matthew 5:8-9

You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Matthew 5:43-44

Peace I leave with you,
My peace I give to you;
not as the world gives do I give to you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:27

Islam

In the name of Allah,
the beneficent, the merciful.
Praise be to the Lord of the
Universe who has created us and
made us into tribes and nations
That we may know each other, not that
we may despise each other.
If the enemy incline towards peace, do
thou also incline towards peace, and
trust God, for the Lord is the one that
heareth and knoweth all things.
And the servants of God,
Most gracious are those who walk on
the Earth in humility, and when we
address them, we say "PEACE."

Source Unknown

Send Thy peace O Lord, which is
perfect and everlasting,
that our souls may radiate peace.

Send Thy peace O Lord, that we
may think, act and speak harmoniously.

Send Thy peace O Lord, that we
may be contented and thankful for
Thy bountiful gifts.

Send Thy peace O Lord, that amidst
our worldly strife, we may enjoy Thy bliss.

Send Thy peace O Lord, that we
may endure all, tolerate all, in the thought of
Thy grace and mercy.

Send Thy peace O Lord, that our lives
may become a Divine vision and in Thy light,
all darkness may vanish.

Send Thy peace O Lord, our Father and Mother,
that we Thy children on Earth may all
unite in one family.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

Oh God, You are Peace.
From You comes Peace,
To You Returns Peace.
Revive us with a salutation of Peace,
and lead us to your abode of Peace.

A saying from the Prophet, used in daily prayer by Muslims.

Bahai'

Be generous in prosperity,
and thankful in adversity.
Be fair in thy judgment,
and guarded in thy speech.
Be a lamp unto those who walk
in darkness, and a home
to the stranger.
Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light
unto the feet of the erring.
Be a breath of life to the body of
human kind, a dew to the soil of
the human heart,
and a fruit upon the tree of humility.
 
 

Zoroastrian

We pray to God to eradicate all the misery in the world:
that understanding triumph over ignorance,
that generosity triumph over indifference,
that trust triumph over contempt, and
that truth triumph over falsehood.
 

African

Almighty God,
the Great Thumb we cannot evade to tie any knot;
the Roaring Thunder that splits mighty trees:
the all-seeing Lord up on high who sees
even the footprints of an antelope on a rock mass here on Earth.
You are the one who does not hesitate to respond to our call.
You are the cornerstone of peace.

Celtic Prayer

We swear by Peace and Love to Stand,
Heart to Heart, Hand to Hand,
Mark, O Spirit, And Hear Us Now,
Confirming This, Our Sacred Vow.

Caitlin Matthews

Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the infinite peace to you.

Peace up to heaven, heaven down to earth,
Earth beneath heaven, strength in each one!

Three Peace Blessings from the Carmina Gaedelica

The peace of joys,
The peace of lights,
The peace of consolations.
The peace of souls,
The peace of heaven,
The peace of virgins.
The peace of the fairy bowers,
The peace of peacefulness,
The peace everlasting.

Peace between neighbors,
Peace between kindred,
Peace between lovers,
In love of the King of life.
Peace between person and person,
Peace between wife and husband,
Peace between woman and children,
The peace of Christ above all peace.
Bless, O Christ, my face,
Let my face bless everything;
Bless O Christ mine eye,
Let mine eye bless all it sees.

The peace of God, the peace of men,
The peace of Columba kindly,
The peace of Mary mild, the loving,
The peace of Christ, King of tenderness.
Be upon each window, upon each door,
Upon each hole that lets in light,
Upon the four corners of my house,
Upon the four corners of my bed,
Upon the four corners of my bed;
Upon the thing my eye takes in,
Upon my body that is of earth
And upon my soul that came from on high.
Upon my body that is of earth
And upon my soul that came from on high.

Translated by Alexander Carmichael

Neopagan

Invocation to the Mother of Peace

Gracious Lady Mother of all that lives and exists,
Be with us, your children.
Grace our circle with Your presence
And enter the hearts of all your creatures.
Fill us with your love and compassion,
Let the seeds of discord disintegrate
And be dispersed by the winds
Transformed by fire into a purer form
Smoothed out by the flowing of water
Grounded into the earth from which we all spring.
We are asking for peace, striving for it in our own hearts
And praying for it in the hearts of others.
Be with us in our circle
Spread your arms of compassion and unity
So that all the world will be enfolded in them.
May there be peace on earth
And let it begin with us.
May it be spread on the winds to encompass all the world,
All nations, all peoples, all religions
We are one. So mote it be

Gracious Lady, Mother of all that lives,
We call out to you to guide all of your children.
Bless our eyes, that we may see each other with love.
Bless our ears, that we may hear each other with understanding.
Bless our mouths, that we may speak to each other with compassion.
Bless our hands, that they may heal, not harm.
Bless our feet, that we may walk beside each other in peace.
Great Goddess, Mother of birth and death and re birth,
Goddess of the green Earth that feeds us,
Of the creatures that roam upon its surface,
And the tides that lap its shores,
Lady of the Cauldron, let all your children drink of its wisdom
And know that all names of the Divine are but one Name,
And all worship but a dance to the singular music of Life.

Kathe Walters

Come take our hate, come take our fear,
Come take our loneliness, and hold us ever near.

Come take our rage, come take our pain,
Come take our darkness, and make us light again.

Come bring us peace, come bring us life,
Come bring us freedom from the call to war and strife.

Come bring us love for all that lives,
Come bring us thankfulness for all the gifts you give.

For all this Earth is sacred space.
Oh keep us mindful when we meet face to face
That we are a people, a single people,
Children of Spirit, forever near it.

Kathe Walters

Hopi

Great Spirit and all unseen,
this day we pray and ask you for guidance,
humbly we ask you to help us and fellow men
to have recourse to peaceful ways of life,
because we ask You to help us and fellow men
to have recourse to peaceful ways of life,
because of uncontrolled deceitfulness by human kind.
Help us all to love, not hate one another.

Metaphysical Prayer

May the Power of the One Life
pour through the group of all true servers.
May the Love of the One Soul characterize
the lives of all who seek to aid the Great Ones.
May we fulfill our part in the One Work through
self-forgetfulness, harmlessness, and right speech.

World Servers Mantram

American

Bless those in harms way.
Bless those who are suffering.
Bless those who are dying.
Bless the lost unknowing dead.
Bless those who love.
Bless those who are helping.
Bless those who can do nothing but wait.
Bless those with limited information.
Bless those who are scared.
Bless those who are falsely suspected.
Bless those of limited understanding.
Bless those upholding civil liberties.
Bless those who, though well-intentioned, do wrong.
Bless those holding vigil throughout the good, green
Mother Earth.
Bless the Mysterious Ones who love and hold us dear; may we feel their
comfort, too.
Bless us all and give us strength.
So mote it be, Amen, Ho ...

Carolyn McDade