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A reflection and prayer to start the day with Iwan Russell Jones, a lay reader for the Church in Wales

Bore da, good morning!

The horrific events unfolding in the Middle East over the last few weeks have left many of us who are watching from afar feeling confused, angry and at a loss to imagine what could ever be done to bring an end to all the violence. It seems to be a problem with no hope of a solution and serves to drive even people of faith deeply into cynicism or despair. Where is God in all of this?

We know, too, that it’s problem that stretches far back into history. There’s no quick fix to be had here, no political formula that can erase the injustices and bitter memories accumulated over centuries.

Thirty five years ago I was in Israel as a journalist during the first Intifada, when there were sustained Palestinian protests against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. I wrote about the Israelis who felt impaled on the horns of a terrible dilemma – having to make an impossible choice between the demands of justice for all and the raw need to survive. They were truly caught in two minds, and years later that same experience now seems to be shared by so many people around the world. We don’t know what to think or even how to pray about it.

‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem’, wrote the Psalmist. Prayer often seems to be the least useful, most impractical thing in the world. But pray we must – and sometimes it’s all we can do. I find this prayer by Christian Aid is helpful:

Lord, we pray not for Arab or Jew, for Palestinians or Israelis, but rather for ourselves, that we might not divide them in our prayers, but keep them both together in our hearts. Amen