Seemed appropriate here

[AbbyR]

Several years ago I attended a music camp for the Presbyterian Church USA. The youth choir did a piece by Kurt Bestor. It was one of the most moving things I've ever heard, sung by young people with so much ahead of them, but knowing that so many children their age and younger were dying in wars they never started and never understood.

Bestor, I believe, was working in a hospital when the war in Yugoslavia broke out. One day he returned following a trip for supplies, to find the hospital had been destroyed.

This piece is one he wrote and it is now sung worldwide, a cry for peace by the innocent, who always suffer most in war.

I read somewhere that the song was originally written as posted below, with the words "Crying Jesus..." but he now substitutes “Crying softly…” to better encompass the universal message of peace and love that was intended by the work.

I listen to this when I'm feeling really awful, and if you don't know it find it somewhere. And pray for peace.




Prayer of the Children

Can you hear the prayer of the children?
On bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry
Turning heavenward toward the light

Crying Jesus, help me
To see the morning light-of one more day
But if I should die before I wake,
I pray my soul to take

Can you feel the hearts of the children?
Aching for home, for something of their very own
Reaching hands, with nothing to hold on to,
But hope for a better day a better day

Crying Jesus, help me
To feel the love again in my own land
But if unknown roads lead away from home,
Give me loving arms, away from harm

Can you hear the voice of the children?
Softly pleading for silence in a shattered world?
Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate,
Blood of the innocent on their hands

Crying Jesus, help me
To feel the sun again upon my face,
For when darkness clears I know you're near,
Bringing peace again

Dali cujete sve djecje molitive?
(Croatian translation:
'Can you hear all the children's prayers?')
Can you hear the prayer of the children?