May we pray together in a time of heightened tension focused in the
recent clash between settlers and shepherds in the southern Hebron
district, already violated by military maneuvers, settlement
encroachment and evacuation orders for hundreds of Palestinians.

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT BE IN WANT.
HE MAKES ME LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES.
HE LEADS ME BESIDE QUIET WATERS,
HE RESTORES MY SOUL.

On Saturday, May l8, we visited threatened families whose sheepfolds
and homes are built into rocky hillsides, a deceptive spring landscape
of roving goat herds and valleys turned gold by new wheat. On Sunday,
guns exploded this surface peace, leaving a settler dead, both
Palestinian and settler wounded, with prejudices and hatred deepened
on both sides.

HE GUIDES ME IN PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE.

We can search out facts: who held the gun, who did what to whom, but
the deeper questions remain: Who speaks for the truth beneath fact? -
for justice? Who speaks in the name of the God of the poor and
voiceless, of the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep?

EVEN THOUGH I WALK
THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH,
I WILL FEAR NO EVIL,
FOR YOU ARE WITH ME
YOUR ROD AND YOUR STAFF,
THEY COMFORT ME.

We pray that a true search for justice and mutual recognition may
close the path to recrimination, retribution, and escalating violence
and open the way to reconciliation and healing.

YOU PREPARE A TABLE BEFORE ME
IN THE PRESENCE OF MY ENEMIES.
YOU ANOINT MY HEAD WITH OIL;
MY CUP OVERFLOWS.

We pray that wheat may become living bread, broken only to feed the
hungry.

SURELY GOODNESS AND LOVE WILL FOLLOW ME
ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE.

We pray that the stones of hatred my no longer crush minds and hearts
but, by the work of many hands, be built into dwellings of peace.

AND I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
FOREVER.