Prayer on the second anniversary of Hamas attack, start of War on Gaza

Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons.

Holy God of mercy and justice, on this second anniversary of the October 7 attack, we come before you with heavy hearts.

We remember the hostages who remain in captivity—may they be comforted and returned to their families soon.

But, O God, our prayers today dwell deeply with the people of Gaza, who have lost homes, families, and entire generations.

Their land has become a wasteland of rubble and dust, and yet, within that desolation, they still cry out to You.

We grieve the children who no longer have parents to hold them, the parents who have buried their sons and daughters, and the elders who have watched their people starve.

We see the famine creeping in like a shadow of death, and we confess, O Lord, that the world has failed to act with compassion.

We lament the vengeance that rains down upon them, the voices of power that vow to obliterate them as a people.

O God, we cry to You from the depth of our sorrow—break the grip of hatred, silence the tongues of cruelty, and turn the hearts of leaders who have chosen vengeance over humanity.

Let not their hunger or their names be forgotten.

May the innocent of Gaza be remembered as Your beloved children, created in Your image, deserving of life, of safety, of peace.

Teach us, O God, to see in their suffering the reflection of Your Son, who also endured the cruelty of empire.

Let this anniversary not pass as a day of hardened hearts, but as a call to repentance, to truth, and to the sacred work of rebuilding what vengeance has destroyed.

In Your mercy, make us instruments of peace, and in Your justice, bring deliverance to the oppressed.

Amen.