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They stare and gloat over me; choosing your unprotected flesh: ○ they divide my clothes among themselves, but you have robed yourselves in privilege, ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ and for my clothing they cast lots. and chosen to despise the abandoned.

But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my people, what have I done to you? O my help, come quickly to my aid! How have I offended you? Deliver my soul from the sword, Answer me. my life from the power of the dog! Save me from the mouth of the lion! Holy God, Psalm 22:14-21 holy and strange, holy and intimate, Group Prayer: (Each group member should read one have mercy on us. Paragraph.) Holy God, I would have gathered you to me as a lover, holy and strange, and shown you the ways of peace: holy and intimate, but you have desired security, have mercy on us. and you would not surrender your self.

O my people, what have I done to you? O my people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? How have I offended you? Answer me. Answer me.

I brooded over the abyss, I have torn the veil of my glory, with my words I called forth creation: transfiguring the earth: but you have brooded on destruction, but you have disfigured my beauty, and manufactured the means of chaos. and turned away your face.

O my people, what have I done to you? O my people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? How have I offended you? Answer me. Answer me.

I breathed life into your bodes, I have labored to deliver you, and carried you tenderly in my arms: as a woman delights to give life: but you have armed yourselves for war, but you have delighted in bloodshed, breathing out threats of violence. and labored to bereave the world.

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Good Friday Prayer Service (continued)

O my people, what have I done to you? Reader 3: How have I offended you? Solidarity helps us to see the “other”—whether a person, Answer me. people, or nation—not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low I have followed you with the power of my spirit, cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our to seek truth and heal the oppressed: “neighbor,” a “helper” (cf. Gen. 2:189720), to be made a but you have been following a lie, sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to and returned to your own comfort. which all are equally invited by God: Hence the importance of reawakening the religious awareness of individuals and O my people, what have I done to you? peoples. How have I offended you? Answer me. Reader 4: Thus the exploitation, oppression, and annihilation of others Holy God, are excluded. These facts, in the present division of the ○○ holy and strange, world into opposing blocs, combine to produce the danger ○ holy and Intimate, of war and an excessive preoccupation with personal ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ have mercy on us. security, often to the detriment of the autonomy, freedom of Janet Motley. England, 1988 - Genesis 1,2:7; Psalm 22:9-10. 104:28; decision, and even the territorial integrity of the weaker Isaiah 35:1, 46:3-4. 53:1-4; Matthew 27:51; Luke 13:34, 19:41-44; John 16:20-22 nations situated within the so-called “areas of influence” or “safety belts.” All: Hands like these Reader 5: Were hammered on the tree. The “structures of sin” and the sins which they produce are Feet like our feet likewise radically opposed to peace and development, for Were pierced. development, in the familiar expression of Pope Paul’s A head like our head encyclical, is “the new name for peace.” Bore the shameful thorns. Gwenallt, 1959 Reader 6: Gwreiddiau, Gwasg Gomer In this way, the solidarity which we propose is the path to Welsh Pilgrim’s Manual, ed. Brendan O’Malley, Gomer, 1989 peace and at the same time to development. For world peace is inconceivable unless the world’s leaders come to recog- Brief Period of Silence nize that interdependence in itself demands . . . the sacrifice of all forms of economic, military, or political imperialism Reading and Reflection and the transformation of mutual distrust into collaboration. Reader 1: This is precisely the act proper to solidarity among individu- Structures of sin are rooted in personal sin, and thus always als and nations. linked to the concrete acts of individuals who introduce these structures, consolidate them and make them difficult Reader 7: to remove. And thus they grow stronger, spread, and The goal of peace, so desired by everyone, will certainly be become the source of other sins, and so influence people’s achieved through the putting into effect of social and behavior. international justice, but also through the practice of the virtues which favor togetherness, and which teach us to live Reader 2: in unity, so as to build in unity, by giving and receiving, a These attitudes and “structures of sin” are only conquered— new society and a better world. presupposing the help of divine grace—by a diametrically opposed attitude: a commitment to the good of one’s Period of Silence (5-10 minutes) neighbor with the readiness, in the gospel sense, to “lose oneself” for the sake of the other instead of exploiting him, and to “serve him” instead of oppressing him for one’s own advantage.

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Good Friday Prayer Service (continued)

Litany for Peace from the politics of terror Reader 1: Lord , by your cross and resurrection deliver us All: deliver us from the plundering of the earths resources By your witness to the truth deliver us deliver us from the dispossession of the poor By your passion and death deliver us deliver us from the despair of this age ○○ by your victory over the grave deliver us ○ deliver us ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Second Reader: By the light of the gospel from the desire for power All: give us peace deliver us by the good news for the poor from the conspiracy of silence give us peace deliver us by your healing of our wounds from the worship of weapons give us peace deliver us by faith in your word from the slaughter of the peoples give us peace deliver us by hunger and thirst for justice from the nightmare of hunger give us peace deliver us by the coming of the Kingdom from peace that is no peace give us peace deliver us All: Amen. from security that is no security Linda Frewin and Tony Bartlett, for Peacemakers, ed. Valerie deliver us Flessati, Kevin Mayhew Publishers, 1988 - Isaiah 53

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