On this post we will share the video recordings from our Daily Prayer Vigil, with most recent video being posted at the top.
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Description: Amidst the escalation of conflict, we are continuing these vigils until further notice, 10 minutes daily for peace and compassion in Israel and Palestine, prayers led by Abrahamic Reunion Board, Staff, and Peaceuilders in the Holy Land, at 11am EDT.
September 13th – with Dr. Sheikh Khalid Abu Ras
September 1st – with Anat Lev Or
August 25th – with Druze Sheikh Moafaq Tareef (with English Translation)
August 18th – with Fr. Jamal Kader
August 11th – with Sheikh Helme Hamad (with English Translation)
August 4th – with Rabbi Dr. Yusuf Lifshitz
July 15th – with Rabbi Chananel Rosen
Week 6 – July 8th – with Dr. Somaya Haj Yahya (with English Translation)
Week 5 – July 1st – with Sheikh Hassan Moafaq Tarif, Israel
Week 4 – June 24th – with Bassem Adranly, Pastor, East Jerusalem
Week 3 – June 17th – with Sheikh Abukhalil al Tamimi, East Jerusalem
Week 2 – June 10th – with Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Dov Rosen, Yakar Jerusalem
Week 1 – June 3rd – with Rev. Cliff Cutler, Retired Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Philadelphia – 1st Weekly Prayer Vigil
Day 16 – May 30th – with David Less & Sheikh Ghassan Manasra – Final Daily Prayer Vigil
Day 15 – May 29th – with Rabbi Leora Ezrachi-Vered, Northern Israel
Day 14 – May 28th – with Sheikha Najah Kabaha, Nazareth, Israel
Day 13 – May 27th – with Fr. Nael Abu Rahmoun, Anglican Vicar of Nazareth
Day 12 – May 26th – with Siham Halabi, AR Co-Founder & Womens Programs Leader, Daliat al-Carmel
(In Arabic & English) بالعربية
Day 11 – May 25th – with Sheikh Amarneh, Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories
(In Arabic) بالعربية
Day 10 – May 24th – with Professor Avraham Elqayam, Bar-Ilan University
This is the book mentioned, which Prof. Elqayam and Sheikh Ghassan Manasra edited together, sharing prayers from the three faiths. A link to see more.
Day 9 – May 23rd – with Sheikha Laila Manasra, East Jerusalem / Nazareth / Florida (In Arabic)
(In Arabic) بالعربية
Day 8 – May 22nd – with Ghassan Manasra, International Director
Day 7 – May 21st – with Chris Miller, Executive Administrator
Day 6 – May 20th – with Ira Harritt, US Board of Directors (Kansas City)
Day 5 – May 19th – with Michael Macy, US Board of Directors (London)
Day 4 – May 18th – with Hermione Garland, US Board of Directors (Massachusetts)
Day 3 – May 17th – with Neil Rothenberg, US Board of Directors (Toronto)
Day 2 – May 16th – with Ted Brownstein, US Board of Directors (Lake Worth, FL)
Day 1 – May 15th – with David Less, Abrahamic Reunion Co-Founder & US Board Chairman (Black Mountain, NC)
Vigil Prayer Transcriptions
Day 1 – David Less
Conscious prayer is uniting our will with the will of God.
Conscious prayer is the manifestation of the inner secret of our hearts.
Conscious prayer is the one soul that is within us all connecting and being directed towards an ideal.
We know that there is real suffering in the Holy land. In Israel, in Palestine, in Gaza, there are real human beings suffering. There’s trauma to children and adults. There’s fear. There’s that inescapable pain in the hearts of these human beings, these sisters, and brothers of ours.
So today I hope that each of us unites our hearts and our minds and our souls with the infinite being of perfect love and compassion. Prayer, deep prayer can bring harmony out of chaos.
In this case, it has nothing to do with points of view or sides or who’s right or who’s wrong.
We’re praying for the people on the ground.
We’re praying for the future.
We’re praying that the real atmosphere of balance can be restored.
So let’s sit, if you wish, just for a few minutes in silence and pray in whatever way you wish.
We’re not praying for peace; Peace is the real power that emerges naturally out of the genuine prayer.
It’s not that God forgets what we need we need to remind ourselves.
So let’s have a few minutes of silence.
Ah-men, Amen, Ameen.
We know what our hearts desire. Our hearts desire peace. There is no power greater than the power of peace and as we sit here, a collectivity of human consciousness,
I hope and pray that we connect all the family of peace which is – every human being at their core.
I hope we connect with the great prophetesses and prophets of past and present. The ones who are known, the ones who are hidden, that their love, their energy can reign upon us especially in the Holy land.
And because of our connected efforts to remember that peace is power, a real shift can occur, a real awakening and a deep understanding that human beings are destined to settle differences by being raised to a higher state. Not by death, not by destruction.
I feel so strongly that these prayers, these moments, will extend a vibration of peace, tolerance, forgiveness. And most importantly, by us coming together, the flame of hope will burn brighter and brighter and out of that, the miracle of peace will emerge. Thank you all. We’ll do this every day at 11 a.m Eastern, until we don’t need to. I pray that God’s infinite love and blessing flow through us to all those who are suffering. And that out of this suffering peace real peace can emerge. Thank you.
Day 2 – Ted Brownstein
We gather together today because our hearts are heavy.
Because people, in the land that we deem as Holy, are suffering and in pain and in fear.
And from our solidarity with each other and with them, we want to send healing out into the world.
We want to send peace to them.
We want to send love, to all who are in fear today.
Recognizing our oneness, recognizing our faith, our religion should be, ought to be, and is at its heart, a cause for peace in the world.
Because we want to gain capacity in our heart, soul and mind, to be a force for peace, to reach out to those who are suffering, to call for non-violence solutions to the injustices of that land and the world as a whole.
So the Abrahamic Reunion, of course, is dedicated to this and welcomes you to these daily prayer vigils, which began just yesterday and will extend as long as needed. So please come back as often as you can and join us and invite your friends and other lovers of peace to join us as well. Paraphrasing the words of Jalaluddin Rumi – Come, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, it doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair, even if you have had your hope for peace, broken a thousand times, come, yet again, come, come.
Our holy books contain beautiful pictures of peace from the prophets, and reading from the Hebrew prophet Micah who was a contemporary of Isaiah, holds out the hope for a peaceful world.
In the days to come, the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established above the highest mountain, and shall be raised above the hills, peoples shall stream to it and many nations shall come. Come shall say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths. For out of Zion law will go forth in the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples and shall arbitrate between the strong nations far away and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig tree and no one shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it.
And from the Holy Qur’an similar words.
For they will greet each other with peace.
Do you not see how God compares a good word to a good tree? Its root is firm and its branches reach the sky, always yielding in its fruit in its season, by the will of its Lord. So let us now turn our hearts toward the Holy land, sending them light and strength and in our silence and in our breath, send Salam, Shalom, Pacem
Peace to every suffering soul.
Let us pray
Yesterday I had the privilege of attending Jumah prayers Friday prayers at a local mosque and a mutual friend with the Imam who’s a rabbi was there. And we spoke with a member of the community who was Palestinian and found out his story that his family was near Ramallah and everything that they were going through at this time. And of course, our hearts went out to him. Then last night he sent me a little clip that he had received from Gaza of a family that was praying and in the midst of their prayers the bombs are going off and the room is filled with dust and of course there they’re crying out Allah Akbar and calling on God for help and strength, but I was thinking of the children in the room and that dust that they were breathing, that toxic dust that can only spread hate, and fear on these young children as they grow up. And what are they going to grow up to be having breathed that in? And so how important it is to replace every thought of war with the thought of peace, to allow our children to grow up, loving humanity without the fear in their hearts.
That they would breathe fresh air whether blowing from the sea or fragrances in a flower garden or in the woods.
That the children can hold hands and dance on the seashore, through the flowers, through the trees, breathing fresh air, breathing in a spirit of love, of our common humanity and of building a better world.
Come out of the circle of time, and into the circle of love. Dance like the burden has been lifted.
Come whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, it doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come even if your hopes for peace have been broken a thousand times. Come yet come again, come, come.
So good of you all to have shared with us today. Thank you for coming. Please invite your friends, gather our circle of friends, and enlarge it and we hope to see you again tomorrow.
Peace!
Day 3 – Neil Rothenberg
Good day, Lovers of peace! Thank you so much for joining together in order to send our prayers and thoughts of peace to those who are suffering from this tragedy that is unfolding in the Holy land.
It’s so important for us to remember the power of prayer and the power of positive thought and emotion. For after all it is the power of thought and power of emotion that drives both conflict and peace. and the more that we are able to see, the prayers and thoughts of peace, the more influence those prayers and thoughts will have. So the work that we are doing, even though it appears, that we are small in numbers, the work we are doing is so incredibly important to bring peace and love, and compassion and loving kindness to the situation currently at hand in the Holy land.
So, I’d like to do some meditation and some affirmations, together. Let’s start with an affirmation that I’ll ask us all to repeat 11 times.
In unison with the will of God, we will, to have Peace. (2:43 – 4.00)
And as you inhale, concentrate on the phrase, ‘In Unison with the will of God,’ and as you exhale, concentrate on the phrase, ‘we will, to have peace.’
And with each exhalation, allow that peace to descend upon the Holy land.
And focusing on concentration, once again on the physical location of Israel and Palestine, let’s join together in a meditation.
With the thought of Love, I wish to consider the world.
And let this Love, extend to the four corners of the earth. And with the Love increasing beyond measure, let Love encompass, the whole of the universe up to its confines.
With the thought of Compassion, I wish to consider the world.
And may this Compassion, extend to the four corners of the earth. And with the Compassion increasing beyond measure, let Compassion encompass the whole of the universe up to its confines.
With the thought of Peace, I wish to consider the world.
And may this Peace, extend to the four corners of the earth. And with the Peace increasing beyond measure, let Peace encompass the whole of the universe up to its confines.
And let’s offer one final affirmation and we’ll repeat three times and please join in when you are able.
To realize and spread the knowledge of unity, the religion of love and wisdom, so that the bias of faiths and beliefs may of itself fall away, the human heart may overflow with love, and the hatred caused by distinctions and differences, may be rooted out.
To realize and spread the knowledge of unity, the religion of love and wisdom, so that the bias of faiths and beliefs may of itself fall away, the human heart may overflow with love, and the hatred caused by distinctions and differences, may be rooted out.
To realize and spread the knowledge of unity, the religion of love and wisdom, so that the bias of faiths and beliefs may of itself fall away, the human heart may overflow with love, and the hatred caused by distinctions and differences, may be rooted out.
Shalom, Salaam, Peace
Shalom, Salaam, Peace
Shalom, Salaam, Peace
Thank you, beloved ones, for joining us today. Once again, we ‘ll be meeting on a daily basis, at 11 eastern daylight time and please feel free at anytime during the day to focus your thoughts of love, peace and compassion, on our brothers and sisters, in the Holy land.
Day 4 – Hermione Garland
Welcome Friends. Good morning Beloved ones of God.
Let’s remember that we are the Beloveds of God and that each one in the Holy land of whatever religion or culture is the Beloved of God
Please join me while muted, in repeating the following invocations three times, enfolding the Holy land in our prayer
Bismillah-ir-rahman-ir-raheem
We begin in the name of God who is Mercy and Compassion
Bismillah-ir-rahman-ir-raheem
We begin in the name of God who is Mercy and Compassion
Bismillah-ir-rahman-ir-raheem
We begin in the name of God who is Mercy and Compassion
Shema Israel, Adonai Aloheynu, Adonai Echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is One.
Shema Israel, Adonai Aloheynu, Adonai Echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is One.
Shema Israel, Adonai Aloheynu, Adonai Echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is One.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
And let us come into the holy spirit of peace,
let us breathe together joining our hearts, our energy and our breath together,
as one company, as one heart.
Breathing in salaam and breathing out shalom.
Breathing in salaam
and breathing out shalom.
And let’s do this at our own pace.
Breath is light.
Breath is life.
And as God breathed into the nostrils of Adam, breath is God’s own presence coming into the being of peace,
the spirit of God who is the source and goal of all.
Breathe in that space,
feel your heart, experience the oneness and unity of that place.
And as you breathe, feel yourself in the presence of the Beloved as you experience the Beloved.
And from that place let your heart encompass all those in the Holy land. Holding them in the space of peace,
holding them in the truth of unity.
All the children, all the families, all the adults,
united in One,
in the spirit of God by whatever name you call God, to whom we all belong.
And please join me now as we further send peace and blessing with the following wishes. May the people of the Holy land be well and happy.
May they be without affliction.
May they be safe.
May they live in peace.
Ameen, Ah-men
Amen. The whole of humanity is one single body and all nations, communities and races are the different organs. The happiness and well-being of each is the happiness and well-being of all. When there is reciprocity love and goodness toward one another, a better time will come.
Thank you, Beloveds. Thank you for spreading this peace, for holding this peace. Thank you for joining us please keep the people of the Holy land in your heart throughout the day.
Blessings.
Day 5 – Michael Macy
Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening.
And thank you for giving me this short time to be with you and and to embrace peace.
What I was struck by as I thought about being with you today, was the incredible power of peace and the need to be present…World without history because we all would be living all the stories that need to be told.
Where are the heroes we need are the people we know,
Where the dramatic moments are happening now: people are being born, forgetting who they are, then remembering.
Celebrating the essentials of family and friendship, community and companionship.
Crops are being planted, nourished, and harvested. Trees are treasured.
What need would we have for origin stories, when we all know who we are to each other?
What need would we have to know where we come from, when we know where we are now?
What need would we have to remember insult and injury, when past enmities are overcome by present illumination?
What reason would we have to fight amongst ourselves, if we were constantly grateful for every bite of food and giving thanks to its source, the plants who become us, the animals who give the gift of their lives, the earth that sustains all life?
Being grateful for every drop of water, performing rituals to all sources, the aquifers, the rivers, the streams, the creeks, the springs, the seas, and the oceans. Being grateful for every breath.
Kneeling in gratitude for the very existence of the atmosphere which envelops and enlivens us. And how could we condone conflict if we knew that all we receive is the result of peace? It is only with peace that the earth is cultivated.
It is the power of peace that provides the protection required of creation.
It is the power of peace that provides the space for inspiration and the time for innovation. It is the power of peace that promotes and prolongs life. It is peace from which we all come and will return to. It is peace we all long for, which constantly calls us.
May we respond to that call by living lives of peace, striving for peace,
and in whatever way we can providing peace to the Holy land. And all lands are holy.
So let us pledge ourselves to peace within and without from this moment forward.
I would invite us all now to contemplate the incredible power of peace and what has provided that power. All progress is provided to us from the power of peace.
Spirit of Love and Life come and rest upon us, within us, for these few moments of calm. Quiet my striving, and allow me a time for breath for silence, a time to let go of all longings and desire. May I simply be here without worry or wish.
In the quiet of our hearts, pour in peace.
Not only the absence of striving, not only the absence of conflict, but the fullness of peace, that may be. Peace embodied in how we treat each other, into the world in compassion and care, shown in the world by acts of justice and of mercy. Peace known by the safety of children and those who are vulnerable. Peace created by each of the earth’s children within and beyond, building a web that links each to all, to the boundaries of all that is. Into our hearts, pour this presence of peace, we pray. Spirit of Life and Love Thou who animates our lives, the world is in trouble and chaos, cries out for the blessings of peace.
May we be those who draw together the threads of peace found in the beauty of the earth that surround us.
Found in the common and simple acts of kindness and compassion, that fill the world. May we draw together the threads of peace and weave them. Weave peace for our weary beloved world.
In the quiet of these moments, may we open our hearts to the presence of peace,
so may it be world without end. Amen.
Thank you, thank you all very much.
Day 6 – Ira Harritt
Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening wherever you are, my name is Ira Harritt. I’m a new board member from the Abrahamic Reunion. We thank you for joining us and offering your prayers, for peace, for the people of Palestine and Israel. I along with you, are deeply saddened by the ongoing violence and suffering in the Holy land. We grieve the loss of life, the injuries, the destruction of homes, and for some, the destruction of hope.
While reflecting on what I could offer, in our prayer vigil today, a wisdom story from the Native American tradition came to mind. It goes…one evening a Cherokee elder was teaching his grandson about life. He explained there is a fight going on inside me, and inside all of us. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil, he is anger, fear, violence, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt,
lies, hate, and ego. The other is good he is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, truth, and compassion.
The grandson thought about this for a time and then asked, “Which wolf will win?” Quietly his grandfather smiled and simply replied, “The one you feed.” Within each of us are qualities that can foster peace, and within us is the ability, to recognize that we are all one interconnected human family, and a part of One divine being.
Each of us has within us, God-given seeds of divine compassion, mercy, love, and forgiveness.
The seeds may be dormant, or they may be in full bloom. But they are there. I invite you to offer prayers in unison, with the will of God, seeing the infinite power of God’s light and love, quickening and nourishing seeds of peace, in the hearts of all Palestinians and Israelis and in all the hearts, in the hearts of all their leaders. Feeding the good wolves in each of us and bringing peace.
Amen. May our prayers be answered. May God’s light and love nourish and spread compassion, love, understanding, and forgiveness in the Holy land. May our prayers have abundant yields. Shalom, Salaam, Peace.
Shalom, Salaam, Peace. Shalom, Salaam, Peace, Amen. Thank you for sharing your prayers. We encourage you to come back every morning, and as a special addition to our program, we will be having prayer leaders from the Middle East, beginning next week.
Peace and blessings to you. Thank you.
Day 7 – Chris Miller (With a comment from Sheikh Ghassan Manasra)
Ghassan: Assalamu’alaikum brothers and sisters. This is the prayer of our dear brother great Reverend Chris Miller but I would like to say some great news for all of you. We succeeded to hold ceasefire, in between the Israelis and Gaza, the Palestinians. And it’s happened Wednesday night. We succeeded, all of us, all of the, working in this field. I was one of these people that we succeeded to organize all of these things, you know, I’m from Abrahamic Reunion, Sheikh Ghassan Manasra. And on Thursday, the Israelis pass it to the Egyptian, and the Egyptian passed it to Hamas, and Hamas also say, ‘we agreed,’ and we finish all of these things. The situation in Israel, Palestine is very, very, very, quiet now. Safe and good. And inshallah, next week, and Tuesday, I think I’ll fly to Israel again, to make it very, very, very, strong, the peace, very strong, and we’ll be together. Your prayers helped us to do that. The prayers of everyday, helped us, and you helped us. Thank you so much for that, we love you so much.
Chris: So, welcome everybody. I’m Chris Miller. I’m on the staff of the Abrahamic Reunion.
And just want to thank everybody, for gathering here in prayer for the last week, building the energy of peace, in our circle, in ourselves, and in the world, and sending that peace, that energy, that love, that connection, to our friends, our brothers, and sisters, in the Holy land, who need it, have needed it. And even though there’s a ceasefire now, they need it even more now, to maintain the ceasefire, to continue the ceasefire, to make sure that things don’t stir up again, that they can move through this ceasefire moment, and create a deeper, a more lasting peace, based on connection of the heart, of empathy, understanding, mutual goodwill, and an understanding, that when they make peace for each other, they make peace for themselves. They make their land, more holy, more great.
So thank you all. It said that, there is a peace that passeth understanding, in the Bible. The peace that passeth understanding is a peace that we cannot conceptualize, we cannot understand mentally, that we must feel, we must taste, we must embody.
So let’s let’s turn within and link in to that peace, that sense of peace, that sense of wholeness, by connecting with the source of peace, and the source of wholeness. However we may think of that source. However we may call that source.
The One.
God.
Hashem.
Allah.
The Universe.
Let yourself connect with that ever flowing, wellspring of peace, that abides deep within, deep within the source, and deep within
our own hearts.
That peace, which is known by many names.
Al-Salam,
Shalom,
the wholeness.
Let us breathe deeply with that peace, receive deeply of that peace. Call it forth into our hearts, into our minds, and thoughts,
into the tissue of our very cells. Flowing with the breath, we breathe into the atmosphere we share with all living beings, with our brothers and sisters, in the holy land, the Palestinians, the Israelis.
Let this peace flow from us, in our circle, into the connections,
that link us with the holy land, with the people there, each person we know, connections of connections.
We call on You, Source of Life, Source of Peace, Source of our bodies, hearts, and souls.
Send your peace, upon our brothers and sisters.
Upon the lands, that the lands may be quiet in the Holy land.
Upon the waters, that they may flow clear, peacefully.
Upon the air, the wind, the weather of the Holy land, that
peace may be breathed in and out by our friends there.
We call on Abraham, Sarah and Hagar – Bless your children, bless your descendants, this one family, the Abrahamic family in the Holy land.
Bless them with the spirit of reconciliation, the spirit of forgiveness, the spirit of wholeness, the spirit of peace.
Ameen, Amen
Ah-men.
Peace with each of you, Peace with ourselves, May that peace be a bounty unto the world.
Send thy peace, O Lord, which is perfect and everlasting. Send thy peace, O Lord, which is perfect and everlasting. Send thy peace, O Lord,
Send thy peace, O Lord.
Send thy peace, O Lord, which is perfect and everlasting. Send thy peace, O Lord which is perfect and everlasting. Send thy peace, O Lord. Send thy peace, O Lord.
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 they peace O Lord, Send thy peace O Lord.
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, that we may enjoy thy bliss.
Send they peace, O Lord, Send thy peace, O Lord.
Send thy peace, O Lord, that we may endure all and 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.
Send thy peace, O Lord,
Send thy peace, O Lord,
Send thy peace, O Lord, Send thy peace, O Lord.
