RECONCILIATION WEEK PRAYERS

Thursday, 25 May 2017 20:33

RECONCILIATION WEEK PRAYERS

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Reconciliation week Prayers

ABORIGINAL

Reconciliation Prayer

Holy Father, God of Love,

You are the Creator of all things.

We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history

and the sufferings of Our peoples,

and we ask your forgiveness.

We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus

to reconcile the world to you.

We pray for your strength and grace to forgive, accept and love one another, as you love us and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better

future for our Nation.

Teach us to respect all cultures.

Teach us to care for our land and waters.

Help us to share justly the resources of this land. Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged.

Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families, our communities and our Nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group 13 March 1997 Brisbane, Qld).

National Reconciliation Prayer

Creator Spirit,

All creation once declared your glory,

Your laws were honoured and trusted,

Forgive us our neglect as our country approaches

the most critical moment in its history.

Listen to our prayer as we turn to you,

Hear the cry of our land and its people,

Just as you heard the cry of Jesus,

your Son, on the Cross.

Help us to replace our national shame

With true national pride by restoring the

dignity of our First People whose antiquity is

unsurpassed.

May our faith and trust in you increase.

Only then will our nation grow strong and be

a worthy place for all who wish to make their home in our land.

Amen.

Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Melbourne.

The Dawn is at Hand

Dark brothers, first Australian race,

Soon you will take your rightful place

In the brotherhood long waited for,

Fringe-dwellers no more.

Sore, sore the tears you shed

When hope seemed folly and justice dead.

Was the long night weary? Look up, dark band,

The dawn is at hand.

Go forward proudly and unafraid

To your birthright all too long delayed,

For soon now the shame of the past

Will be over at last.

You will be welcomed mateship-wise

In industry and in enterprise;

No profession will bar the door,

Fringe-dwellers no more.

Dark and white upon common ground

In club and office and social round,

Yours the feel of a friendly land,

The grip of the hand.

Sharing the same equality

In college and university,

All ambitions of hand or brain.

Yours to attain.

For ban and bias will soon be gone,

The future beckons you bravely on

To art and letters and nation lore,

Fringe-dwellers no more.

Oodgeroo of the Noonucal Tribe

Companion Prayer

Lord, we are companions on a journey

Only you Dear Lord

know the identity and depth of me

You know my hurts and pains

those frustrations I feel in this land

So please, I ask you take my hand

and comfort me

Reconcile and guide me in justice and in faith

For we’re on our way to Alice (Springs)

where you expressed your love for me

Lord, set me free

and let me be the servant I want to be

Lord, I thank you

for hearing and understanding me

For Lord, You are always on my mind

and on my lips and in my heart

And there’s simply no other way

that it could be.

Additional Prayers from Murri Ministry (QLD)

Ritual of Reconciliation

Music: Didgeridoo / Bush or nature sounds

Location: Bush setting- Beach setting-Open Air if possible

Welcome to Country ... (by an Indigenous person present) ....

Leader: (Acknowledgement of Land, Traditional Owners and Community Elders if only non-Indigenous people present)

We acknowledge the traditional owners / caretakers who have walked and cared for this land for thousands of years, and their descendants who maintain these spiritual connections and traditions.

Let us observe a minute of silence to reflect on the millions of footprints that travelled the Dreaming pathways and our own loved ones who have gone before us.

Opening Prayer:

O God, Creator of all peoples, we thank you that you are found and worshipped in every land, in dance and community, in suffering and peace-making, in silence and singing and in the faithfulness of your people.

We especially thank You for the gift of Your servant, Pope John Paul, who came to our land twenty years ago and met with the first peoples of this country. We recall his challenges to us and commit ourselves to work together to become the Church that Jesus wants us to be, to be a Church where Indigenous people are able to make their contribution to her life and where that contribution is joyfully received by all.

Forgive us when we have failed to heed the Pope's call, when we tie our own hands through prejudice or an ungenerous spirit. Lead us, together, to value our many traditions and to listen to the wisdom that we can offer each other. Give us new hearts to be people of reconciliation in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

L: We pray for a truthful mind and heart. May we listen with care to the stories of the peoples of this land. All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.

L: May we listen with wonder to the story of endless generations of Indigenous human presence and cultural activity in this land.