4th October 2025 – feast of St Francis
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9
You Lord, are the source of all good things:
We praise you.
You call us to tend and care for your creation:
May we strive to do your will.
You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:
May we live together in peace.
A reading from Exodus 26: 19- 22, 26-31
Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. But the herdsmen of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek (quarrel) because they quarrelled with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarrelled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah (enmity). And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth (spaciousness), because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”
So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
Response:
To be a peacemaker is to strive, and strive and strive again.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is build and rebuild and build yet again.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to hope and persevere and hope again.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to master the stumbling blocks.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to de-escalate tension.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to overcome pride and jealousy, greed and enmity.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to build on common ground.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to listen.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to build upon friendship and generosity, empathy and humility.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to nourish what has been built.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker it to tend what has been built lest it crumble.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to create the seed bed for new growth.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to share what is learnt.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to stand back so that others may step forwards.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
To be a peacemaker is to be a child of God.
Merciful God, grant us peace.
The Grace.
The Green Tau 