This past week, we awoke to news of yet another massacre - 45 people, mostly women and children, murdered in Acteal, Chiapas by paramilitary forces wielding automatic rifles and machetes. The people were refugees, among the six thousand who have been forced to flee their communities as a result of low-intensity war in Chiapas. They were attacked while praying for peace and an end to the brutality.

As feeling human beings, we walk with these questions:

- how to make such massacres real? - how to replace the staggering casualties with faces, names, persons.

- how to make their pain more heart than history?

- how to be changed enough to dull the edge of annihilation that waits to destroy us all?

The Judeo-Christian scriptures consistently command us to cry out, to plea for justice, to right wrongs that waste the world and its peoples. More - the scriptures warn us against empty reassurances, false promises, and half measures.

In these days after Christmas, as we remember that beside the infant in the manger are the slaughtered innocents of Bethlehem, members of the Atlantic Life Community gather to recall the massacres that dot human history before and since that of the children of Bethlehem. We present-a piece of street theatre touching on five of the massacres, trying to take them to heart.

We who gather in these days after Christmas are seeking to understand and accept that a significant aspect of the political task in this world, is to weep and mourn. We believe that, healed by mourning, we can begin to repair the world, and water the parched earth and our parched souls with our tears. So much that made the world and ourselves beautiful is no more; so much that is essential to life, to spirit, and to love is threatened. We are fallen like the trees, our peace is broken, and so we must love where we cannot trust, trust where we cannot know, and await the coming grace - taking us where we would not go.

For more information, call 410-233-6238 or 202-882-9649

40,000 children die each day of starvation 300,000 dead in Desert Storm 500,000 children dead in Iraq from US/UN sanctions

14.3 million US children living in poverty now 8,000 US children will die this year of malnutrition

2 million children killed in wars over past decade many by US-made weapons 180 DC children under 1 died

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL at White House

Breath Prayer - We are many We are one.

New Testament Reading: Matthew 2:13-18

Petitions:

All: Our presence at the White House on this Feast of Holy Innocents testifies to our mourning for children who have violently lost their lives because of the policies of this government. We stand here also in hope and in prayer in behalf of children throughout the world. So we pray…

L. God, we pray today for all children, especially young children endangered by violence in their homes, neighborhoods, and schools. Response: God, hear our prayer.

L. We pray for all children who have no homes, do not have enough to eat, and live in want and destitution. R.

L. For children forced to work in sweatshops long and grueling hours for little pay while corporations profit from their labors. R

L. For children threatened, injured or killed by landmines. R.

L. For children living in contaminated and environmentally polluted areas, near toxic incinerators and present-day love canals. R.

L. For children starving and lacking medical attention because of sanctions placed on their nations. R.

L. For all children affected by the World flank and International Monetary Fund economic decisions. R.

L. For young people forced into military service which trains them in killing their own sisters and brothers in their own countries and beyond. R.

L. For all children living and dying in war zones. R.

All: Let us call upon the people of faith and belief in nonviolence to join in our prayers:

HINDU PRAYER FOR PEACE

Oh God, lead us from the unreal to the Real. Oh God, lead us from darkness to light. Oh God, lead us from death to immortality. Shanti, shanti, shanti unto all. Oh lord God Almighty, may there be peace in celestial regions. May there be peace on earth. May the waters be appeasing. May herbs be wholesome, and may trees and plants bring peace to all. May all beneficent beings bring peace to us. May thy Vedic Law propagate peace all through the world. May all things be a source of peace to us, and let Thy Peace itself bestow peace on all and may that peace come to me also.

Peace and Universal Brotherhood is the essence of the Gospel Preached by all the Enlightened Ones. The Lord has preached that Equanimity is the Dharma. Forgive do I creatures all, and let all creatures forgive me. Unto all have I amity, and unto none enmity. Know that violence is the root cause of all miseries in the world. Violence, in fact, is the knot of bondage. "Do not injure any living being." This is the eternal perennial and unalterable way of (spiritual) life. A weapon howsoever powerful it may be, can always be superseded by a superior one; but no weapon can, however, be superior to non-violence.

"God adjudges us according to our deeds, not the coat that we wear; that Truth is above everything, but higher still is truthful living." Know that we attaineth God when we loveth and "only that victory endures in consequence of which no one is defeated.

BUDDHIST PRAYER FOR PEACE May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses. May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free. May the powerless find power, and may people think of befriending the children, the aged, the unprotected, be guarded by beneficent celestials. And may they swiftly attain Buddhahood.

MUSLIM PRAYER FOR PEACE In the name of God, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful. Praise be to the Lord of the Universe who has created us and made us into tribes and nations, that we may know each other, not that we may despise each other. If the enemy incline towards peace, to thou also incline towards peace, and trust in God: for the Lord is the one that heareth and knoweth all things. And the servants of God Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in Humility, and when we address them, we say, "Peace".

BAHAI PRAYER FOR PEACE Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be a lamp unto those who walk in darkness and a home for the stranger. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring. Be a breath of life to the body of humankind, a dew to the soil of the human heart, and a fruit upon the tree of humility.

SHINTO PRAYER FOR PEACE "Although the people living across the ocean surrounding us, I believe, are all our brothers and sisters, why are there constant troubles in the world? Why do winds and waves rise in the ocean surrounding us?" "I only earnestly wish that the wind will soon puff away all the clouds which are hanging over the tops of the mountains."

NATIVE AFRICAN PRAYER FOR PEACE Almighty God, the Great

Thumb we cannot evade to tie any knot; the Roaring Thunder that splits mighty trees; the Allseeing Lord up on high who sees even the footprints of the antelope on a rockmass here on earth. You are the one who does not hesitate to respond to our call. You are the cornerstone of peace.

Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, that we may walk the paths of the Most High, and we shall beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall we learn war any more. And none shall be afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.

O Great Spirit of my Fathers, I raise my pipe to you. To your messengers the four winds, and to Mother Earth, who provides for your children. Give us the wisdom to teach our children to love, to respect, and to be kind to each other, so that they may grow with peace in mind. Let us learn to share all the good things that you provide for us on this earth.

We pray to God to eradicate all the miser in the world; that understanding triumph over ignorance, that generosity triumph over indifference, that trust triumph over contempt and that truth triumph over falsehood.

"Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be known as the children of God." "But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To those who strike you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from those who take away your cloak not with-hold your coat as well. Give to everyone who begs from you; and of those who take away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them."

(Peace Seeds represents the 12 prayers for peace prayed in Assisi, Italy on the Day of Prayer for World Peace during the UN International Year of Peace, 1986)