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Summary
- Ten short prayers cover the steps of making peace: deciding when to reach out, seeing one’s own part, letting go of anger, a hard conversation, forgiving, apologizing, rebuilding trust, a person who will not talk, a marriage and one’s own hurt.
- Traditional prayers are quoted from Hapgood’s 1906 Orthodox service book (Great Compline) and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (“For a Blessing on the Families of the Land” and a line of the Litany).
- Jesus told his followers to be reconciled before offering a gift at the altar (Matthew 5:23–24) and to raise a wrong first in private (Matthew 18:15); Paul limited the duty to “as much as lieth in you” (Romans 12:18).
- Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, and Paul and John Mark are biblical examples of broken relationships that were later restored.
- No prayer can force another person to return; the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls magic that seeks “supernatural power over others” gravely wrong (paragraph 2117).
- Reconciling does not mean returning to an abuser; the US National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Genesis 33:4; 45:15; Deuteronomy 18:10–11; Psalm 51:12; 147:3; Proverbs 15:1; Joel 2:25; Matthew 5:23–24; 18:15, 22; Acts 15:39; Romans 12:18; Ephesians 4:31–32; 2 Timothy 4:11; James 1:5; 4:6). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Office of Grand Compline, p. 163. https://archive.org/details/ServiceBookOfHolyOrthodoxChurchByHapgood
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. The Litany, p. 57; Family Prayer, “For a Blessing on the Families of the Land,” p. 598. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Schmemann, Alexander. “Forgiveness Sunday.” Orthodox Church in America. https://www.oca.org/reflections/fr-alexander-schmemann/forgiveness-sunday
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraph 2117. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7E.HTM
- National Domestic Violence Hotline. https://www.thehotline.org/
- GOV.UK. “Domestic abuse: how to get help.” https://www.gov.uk/guidance/domestic-abuse-how-to-get-help
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
- Samaritans. “Contact Samaritans.” https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
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