Enemies? WHAT enemies? – Psalm 6, vs. 10

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 7, 2019
Posted in: personal devotion, Prayer for families, Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

 

Pankratiasten_in_fight_copy_of_greek_statue_3_century_bC

 

All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
    they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame. (Psalm 6:10, NIV)

 

 

            We are beginning our prayerful search through the sixth Psalm, a Psalm of David, and like very many of them, the emotion, the pathos of his writing could have the effect of a little too much DRA-MA on our post-modern understanding.

 

Could, but should not.  Remembering that we are spending our days learning to care a little more deeply, discovering as we pray that we have not yet brought even tears before the Lord at times, much less intense and prolonged intercession with fasting and weeping and crying out on behalf of those who really are endangered in their souls. Today, we remind ourselves that we must always put the oxygen mask on ourselves before we try to help others!

 

We don’t have to weep and “carry on,” no, not at all, but we do have to care to the depth of the Lord’s compassion in us.  Have we tapped it?  Are we too cool for the school of prayer into which we have been admitted? David was not, clearly.

 

We went to the last verse first of Psalm 6, and we will start at the beginning next time, but to help us along the way, look at his words.

 

All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
    they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

 

 

            “Oh, Lord God!  What enemies? David was a fugitive, pursued by a wicked king and his minions.  Us?  We want to go to the movies this weekend! We want to get together with friends this evening!  We think You’re glad when we relax, enjoy this life, when we fellowship and laugh and drink in the beauties of friendship and fun, too!  But Father, help us to remember how hated we are … that is NOT what we want to think about!  HATED?? Enemies??  WHAT enemies?  Oh, Lord, help us to see how desperately wicked are those that oppose our souls, and how real their animosity.  Help us to take up arms against them!

 

            “Help us!  Help us to realize how unendingly our own flesh strives against Your Spirit, and how deep is that enmity!  Remind us, let us see for now and for always that we have enemies because we are vulnerable to doubts about You and Your love when we lay aside the armor You have provided.  We have weaknesses that have been exploited before and would be again if we let down our guard.

 

            “We don’t hate You!  We love You! … but our flesh never will, and it is the worst, most deadly enemy of all, right within us.  We care! We do, and we will.  We care for others, and we care that our own souls thrive in compassion and hope.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.”

 

 

 

Greek Pankratiasten Wrestlers, by permission, Wikipedia, Matthias Kabel

Compassed Round About – Psalm 5:11, 12

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 2, 2019
Posted in: Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare. Leave a comment

 

Guido_Reni_031

 

 

 

 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

 

 

I use the King James Version of the Bible quite often, because it makes me think.  It makes me go to the Greek or Hebrew and find out exactly what “compasseth about” means! The KJV word choice is perfection, as far as language can achieve that, except that we have little reference for the phrase.

 

“Lord God, we could look in any translation and get a glorious sense of what You say here: there are those You defend, those You bless, those You satiate with Your favor.

 

            “But Father!  We have been looking into the lives and even into the souls of those who are not upright, some of them far from it, those who are everything from lazy and shiftless to destroyers on the earth.  We say, if You yet care about them, we will, too.  If You have favor for them, if You might yet deliver and defend them, we want in, in prayer!  Your favor would BE their defense, if only they knew it!

 

            “How solemn is the thought that, with You, slothfulness is kin to destruction.  And whom among us can say we’ve never been lazy or good-for-nothing for a season? Truly, Your Kingdom is upside down in its right side-up-ness!  And Lord God, it is particularly difficult to rise above fatherlessness, motherlessness, abandonment, poverty, and shame.  Deliver them, deliver us, send Your Word and heal them, and deliver them from their destructions!  (Psalm 107:20)  Deliver us from our apathies, our spiritual sloth!

 

Whoever is slothful in his work is brother to him who destroys.  (Proverbs 18:9, BSB)

 

 

Every one who sins, every law breaker, got that way, some in nearly unseen measure, and some on death row. If they can become Desperate, by Your grace they can become Delivered and Discipled.  For them, we pray.  Amen.”

 

 Michael the Arch Angel, Guido Reni, by permission, death of the artist + 100, Wikipedia

 

BEFORE They Are Incarcerated – Psalm 5:8-10

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on May 1, 2019
Posted in: Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

18th_Street_gang_signs

Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness

because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.

For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction;

their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.

 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels;

 because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,

for they have rebelled against you.

 

Imagine for a moment, as long a moment as you can bear it, the agonies of all those sitting in prisons today, mothers separated from their children, men from their wives, imagine the runaways, those caught up in prostitution, abortion, gang warfare.  Pick one, someone you know or know of.  Then, apply the words of this Psalm as they might begin to consider how they got there.

 

We know what it’s like to feel the weight of guilt for something we said or did or left undone.  Imagine if your sins had taken your further, deeper, deadlier into shame and captivity than you ever thought you could go.  Imagine the cry of your heart when you would recognize that your mortal enemies had never been mortal at all, but spiritual enemies strong enough to abort your will to say “no,” your freedom to turn and walk away, to choose life.

 

Imagine, if you can, what it might be like for those so taken up by evil that the first thing they do in prison is join a new gang.   Belonging is everything.  If we are privileged only to imagine these things, we are privileged to pray for those who went too far and have lost the way back.

 

Imagine confronting those spiritual entities that have no truth in their mouths, whose inmost self is destruction, the ones that flattered you to think you “belonged” with other sinners, spiritual powers that rebelled against parents, family, society and in the end, you saw that they were rebels against God, taking you with them, their lies swallowing you into an open grave, and now, let’s pray as if these were our children.

 

For some in the Body of Christ, they are … and we will care deeply.

  

It is reported that there were more than 10,000 members of the MS-13 gang alone in the United States in 2018.  That’s an average of 200 per state, with larger numbers in densely populated areas, of course, with other gang population totals topping 1.4 million.

 

In my research I made this discovery, a quote from a teacher in Central Islip on Long Island, one of many who have been watching classroom seats empty out to gang membership,“Unless we take the time and say ‘They are our children, too,’ and ‘We have to do better,’ I don’t think it’s going to get better.”  Programs they may inaugurate, successes they may have, but there can be no greater hope for our Desperate Little Friends than that we begin to care to our core, and caring, to pray in faith, believing, because those empty chairs were once occupied by somebody’s child.

 

Lord God, again we ask that You would forgive and heal our own insular lives, when our prayers are for our children exclusively, not theirs, our sincerest hopes that evil won’t come near our dwelling, no matter how desperately poor and hopeless others may be.  We do hold that hope, but for those who have already lost children to evil, to deceptions, we pray, we ask, that You would bring them home, and that You would make their homes to be fit to come back to.  Impoverished, forgotten, deserted, steeped in addiction and violence, we are making ourselves care with more than fleeting emotion.  Bring them home, Lord, to our hearts and to their families!  Amen.

 

 

18th Street Gang Signal, Wikipedia, by permission – Aerial Twist

Visiting Them, in Prayer – Psalm 5:3-7

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 26, 2019
Posted in: Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

1280px-Inmates_Orleans_Parish_Prison.jpg 

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.

 

Do you remember when we set out and began to talk about making a list of those we know, those we love, those for whom we made a decision to care deeply, many of whom are living under a crushing weight of guilt, deception, oppression, fear, or anxiety so heavy  and unnatural that we would consider those burdens chronic and even “clinical,” if we had to categorize them?  It is for them we pray when we lift our prayers and cry out to our God.  Think of yours, your Desperate Little Friends, those you know who are overwhelmed in life and floundering on the sands.

Certainly, we pray for ourselves, our families, our happy and well-adjusted friends and neighbors, but while we navigate through our days, even our most difficult ones, every one of us knows several who are living in spiritual desperation.  That can’t be coincidental!  We are strategically located on this earth, that, as my Pastor says, “None should miss the grace of God,” not those who live next door, not those who make the headlines, not those imprisoned actually or spiritually.

 

 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

 

            “Lord God, You take no pleasure in wickedness, but what if the most wicked thing of all is to have liberty, forgiveness, truth, peace, joy in our salvation, and to leave in captivity those too desperate to see their own desperation, too blind to see the escape tunnel, too wounded to trust, even in God? 

 

            “Father, we know men, women, and children who have lifted their heads above water for a few gasping breaths, and some that have been drowning, drowning, drowning for decades.  These are our Dear Little Friends, our Desperate Little Friends, and just as the Psalmist writes, a few of them are themselves workers of iniquity, liars, blood-thirsty and deceitful boasters, gang members, addicts … abortionists … themselves taken captive by devils to do his will, just as the Scripture says, but they have mothers and fathers who grieve for them.  Some are already in prison, some in so much danger that they would be better off if they were, not to mention those falsely accused.

 

            “O Lord!  This is a grievous thing!   In our time, in our culture and under our watch, most of them are not knife-wielding mercenaries, crawling through the underbrush to get at us, as did David’s mortal enemies.  Most of our DLFs are still  holding down jobs, raising families, but with darkened souls and fear in their eyes and regrets overtaking their hearts. Some will not survive without Your deliverance, and we care about them. We meet them on the job, in committee meetings, at the gym, and sometimes in Church.  They post on social media, sometimes their perspectives are chilling, and some of them have a broad field of influence.  Too long have we feared them, resented their intrusions.  If dozens are praying for them, we add our prayers.  If no one else is praying for them, we are.

 

 

But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.
Psalm 5:3-7 (NIV)

 

 

            “You abhor the blood-thirsty and the deceitful man, O God, but You see those that made them that way, those that have thirsted for their blood.  Even the Scripture says there are some for whom we do not pray, but let us take up an anthem for every one that can turn and repent and be saved.  One, is a brother.  One, a father.  One a husband.  One, a mother.  Another, an executive.  Another, a very troubled child.  Some were priests.  Some still are.  Some teach. Some sit in judgment. 

            “Too long have we resented their sin and failed to take the battle to the camp of THEIR enemies.  Now, together, we will care before judgment comes.”

 

Bart Everson, by permission, Wikipedia

Give Ear to Our Cries, O Lord!

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 24, 2019
Posted in: Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Praying Through the Psalms, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

1279px-Rembrandt_-_Joseph_and_Potiphar's_wife

 

 

 

 

A Prayer for Guidance

To the Chief Musician. With flutes. A Psalm of David.

Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my meditation.
 Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.  (Psalm 5:1, 2)

 

            I know of not one Christian who can say, “Every time I’ve prayed, every request I’ve made to the Lord, has been answered within twenty-four hours, exactly per my word and request.”

What we pray and ask, the thing that makes our prayers perfect, is the will of God we seek for ourselves and those we love.  His will works, for hearts and souls and families and nations, and sometimes His plans are not immediate:

We think of Joseph’s long ordeal in Egypt, and its generations-saving effect:

 

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:20)

 

Is it possible that we have as few miracles of salvation and deliverance as we have Josephs: those willing to trust, to wait, to glorify God in faithfulness no matter their circumstances?  We will persevere, by Your grace, Father, as we pray for our Dear Little Friends.

 

“Give ear to our words today, O Lord!  Hear the voice of our cries for those we love, for those for whom we care deeply.  Some are in prison, Father, as Joseph was.  Remember how he suffered there, and remember those we love!  Some are fatherless, as Joseph was, and some have been misunderstood, misrepresented, and even falsely accused.  Most have been taken captive.  Remember Joseph, Father, as if You could forget, taken down to Egypt in chains and all the sorrows of his heart, and remembering, deliver those for whom we pray.

 

. . . he sent a man before them—
    Joseph, sold as a slave.

They bruised his feet with shackles,
    his neck was put in irons,
 till what he foretold came to pass,
    till the word of the Lord proved him true. (Psalm 105:17-19)

 

 

 

Joseph Rejects Potiphar’s Wife, Rembrandt, 1634,

Wikipedia, by permission

4/17/19 …Reversing Shame – Psalm 4:2-4

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 17, 2019
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

UStankParis-edit1

 

 

You men, how long will you try to turn my honor into shame?
How long will you love what is worthless
and search for what is deceptive? (Selah)

  

          In this day, during this hour in which we live, if we measure men and measure ourselves by their honors, their loves, their panting search for deceptive things, we will crumble. Of course we will!  Their quests leave us empty and their loves leave us shamed.

 

We are those who lie upon our beds and think of the Lord Jesus Christ; in repose, in confusion, when we are hurting beyond description, we turn our faces, not to the wall, but to the Lord, in whom we will “lie down in peace and sleep, because He makes us to dwell securely.”  (Psalm 4:8)

 

Now, shall we not ask such a protection, such grace, such strong help for those who have known shame and worthless loves and whose every hunt has deceived them?  We have changed course.  Ours is a righteous path, as righteous as theirs is barren and brambled.  One cannot find gold searching for peat, wanting it supremely.  We will not abandon them.  There may yet be time enough for them to turn, repent, and live again!

 

Remember, o my soul! – the Lord has done a new thing, and those who were enemies have become friends, and those from whom we would have hidden our faces, they are become the objects of our deep caring, our prayerful concern, and our FAITH in the mercies of Christ.  Local gang members, abortionists, absent fathers (and mothers,) political charlatans … yes, them, too, no matter their persuasion.


3 Realize that the Lord shows the godly special favor;
the Lord responds when I cry out to him.
4 Tremble with fear and do not sin!
Meditate as you lie in bed, and repent of your ways! (Selah)

 

             This special favor has been shown to us: we are privileged to care, to console, to offer life, to cry for those in need instead of weeping when they wound us.  When we cry out, we are heard!  On our beds, we remember those rushing headlong to disaster, and we repent of our cold love and pray!, so that they may repent of their sin and shameful ways.

 

 

United States Army M8 “Greyhound” armored tank, at the Arc de Triomphe following the liberation of Paris, World War II, August, 1944

 

Public domain, U.S. Army personnel or employee, work of the Federal Government, Wikipedia

4/16 – We Are Crying Out, as David Did – Psalm 4

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 16, 2019
Posted in: Prayer for the Nation, Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Incendie_Notre_Dame_de_Paris.jpg

 

 

When I call out, answer me,
O God who vindicates me!
Though I am hemmed in, you will lead me into a wide, open place.
Have mercy on me and respond to my prayer! (verse 1, NET)

 

What does the Lord think when we are so direct with Him? Not obnoxious, not presumptuous, but child to Father, friend to Friend, brother to Brother, soldier to Commander?

 

Oh Lord God, in all the “how much more” examples Jesus gave us, You keep calling us to trust this relationship we have with You; if we need You, cry out!  If we are exultant, jump for joy!

 

This very moment, Lord, I can think of a place or two in my life and many in the lives of many of my Desperate Little Friends where it would not be strange if I, if we, were to cry out, “Answer me, O God!  You vindicate us … answer, O Lord!  No matter the lies of the enemies, the darts and arrows we need to deflect, the dangers around us, You will lead us up and out, through every tribulation and into wide, open spaces, and oh!  we do need to find them!

 

Bring us out where we can see what we’ve done and left undone!  Bring us out to that wide place where we can forgive every atrocity committed against us, and the little irksome things, too.  You make new, You care, You understand, You so graciously vindicate us.  We are praying for those who burn with fears, regrets, and uncertainties, and who have scorched others with their words and with many failures of love, but we cry out to You for them.  Look upon this friend and that one, so wounded, so scarred.

 

Bring them out to that place where it all makes sense even in confusion, because YOU are the Potter, You are the Husbandman, You are the Shepherd of Your sheep, and You do not forsake us, forget us, or fail us, and we will care with You.

 

Every good and all our good is in You, O Lord, and we pray today for those who cannot quite say that as wholeheartedly as we, and for ourselves, where we are faint or feckless –

 

Have mercy on us and respond to our prayer!

 

 

 

For those who’ve never worshipped anywhere else … and for those too tormented to worship at all, Lord God, be glorified!

Notre Dame Incendie, April 15, 2019

LeLassierPaserA38, Wikipedia, by permission

4/12 – Breaking the Teeth of the Liars – Psalm 3

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 12, 2019
Posted in: Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Schuyler Shepherd, by permission, Serengeti_Lion_Running_saturated

 

Lord, how many are my foes!
    How many rise up against me!
2 Many are saying of me,
    “God will not deliver him.”

 

“Lord God, had we not one spiritual enemy, not one force for evil mounted against us, we would not have to look far to see those around us, sinking in spiritual trouble.  For them we fight today, and for ourselves as well.  Many have said and will say that You do not deliver … we say, You are our strength, our refuge, our deliverance … ours and theirs for whom we pray!”

 

3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
    my glory, the One who lifts my head high.

 

            Oh, the lies of the liars, Lord!  They hurt, they wound, but You will break the teeth of the liars, just as You have said.  (Psalm 58:6). Answer us, Lord!  When they lie to us, about our marriages, our children, our nation, it’s powerful until we answer in power.  They speak of failure, separation, futility … but You hear from on high when we pray in faith, in hope, and because of love.

 

4 I call out to the Lord,
    and he answers me from his holy mountain. 

5 I lie down and sleep;
    I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6 I will not fear though tens of thousands
    assail me on every side.

 

            Indeed, we will sleep in peace tonight, for the destiny of others is beginning to blossom in faith in our hearts, because You are faithful.

 

Oh Lord God, oh Father!  You as much as tuck us in with every word of truth and grace and mercy and promise that You have spoken.  How privileged we are to say to You at break of day and when we sleep …

 

7 Arise, Lord!
    Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
    break the teeth of the wicked.

8 From the Lord comes deliverance.
    May your blessing be on your people.

 

 

4/11/19 – Nations Are PEOPLES – Psalm 2:6-12

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 11, 2019
Posted in: Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Praying Through the Psalms, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

 

Anti-Corruption_Rally_in_Saint_Petersburg_(2017-06-12)_54.jpg

 

 

 

 

6 For the Lord declares, “I have placed my chosen king on the throne
    in Jerusalem, on my holy mountain.”

7 The king proclaims the Lord’s decree:
“The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son.
    Today I have become your Father.

  

Your Son is risen, risen with healing in His wings, and not for the diseased, only.  Even for souls and families and nations.  This we proclaim, Father, and on behalf of those who cannot yet speak for themselves.        


8 Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
    the whole earth as your possession.
9 You will break them with an iron rod
    and smash them like clay pots.’”

 

There is a King upon a throne (Colossians 3:1,2) The Father and the Son reign on high, and in us.  The Son asks for the nations, and we ask with Him.  I especially want the United States.  And Germany. Also Poland.  And Russia.   Others want China and the Philippines and Ireland.   We want them for our inheritance, as they are the Lord’s and we are His.

 

10 Now then, you kings, act wisely!
    Be warned, you rulers of the earth!
11 Serve the Lord with reverent fear,
    and rejoice with trembling.
 

 

Always remembering … the nations are but delineators … NATIONS are people groups, men and women, marriages, families, children, and Lord God, we love the people that have been too long deceived wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been prevented or perverted, either one.  Send Your Word, heal them, deliver them from their destructions!  (Psalm 107:20)

 

 

12 Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry,
    and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities—
for his anger flares up in an instant.
    But what joy for all who take refuge in him!

 

 

We speak of those, we think of those, who need to submit to truth … all around us we see and we know those who have spurned Your truth, but we will go before them in this truth, Father: we are called to care, to care deeply, to believe and to intercede in faith, in hope, with enduring love, until all those we love have found their true refuge.  Father!  We say “all” as Jesus said, “all.”  The saving and keeping are up to You, but we keep them in our hearts and in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son.  Amen.

an Anti-Corruption Rally in St. Petersburg … June2017

by permission, Wikipedia

Alexei Kouprianov

Psalm 2:1-5 … We Pray, While Nations Rage (Day Three)

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on April 10, 2019
Posted in: Prayer for families, Prayer for the Nation, Praying Through the Psalms, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

1280px-Spanish_War_Children_(restored)

1 Why are the nations so angry?
    Why do they waste their time with futile plans?

  

We know, Lord God, that unless we are “in Christ,” we are “the nations,” the sands that you measure on scales as dust.  In Him, we belong to another realm, with a different hope. Even so, if we aren’t careful, we too become enraged, boiling over, fit to be tied when others won’t take heed. Oh help us, Father, to gain an eternal perspective!  Help those we love not to waste their time or their strength with futile plans, mental gyrations that lead nowhere!   Help us to do the one thing that can make a difference; we will care deeply when those we love do and perpetrate and defend the things we abhor.  We do care, Father!

 

2 The kings of the earth prepare for battle;
    the rulers plot together
against the Lord
    and against his anointed one.

 

Battles and skirmishes everywhere, in politics, at the lunch counter in diners.  Kings and cashiers, preparing for battle against one another, and they don’t know, they do not see that they are shaking their fists at You.  There is a battle for righteousness and truth, and we fight for those who think a pie in the face … or a rocket launch … is effective warfare when in truth, the Son of Man is risen with healing in His wings.

 

3 “Let us break their chains,” they cry,
    “and free ourselves from slavery to God.”

 

 

Your anointed one does bind us … to His heart.  You have bound us with cords of love, and that’s the only “slavery” we want for anyone.  We know what it is to be slaves to truth, where we cannot lie for convenience or power, where we must tell ourselves the truth at any cost, and such slavery we want for all we know.

 

 

4 But the one who rules in heaven laughs.
    The Lord scoffs at them.
5 Then in anger he rebukes them,
    terrifying them with his fierce fury.

 

We know this about You, You have a warrior name, but You are a Man of Peace, Lord Jesus.  The Prince of Peace.  “My peace I leave with You …” … almost Your last words to us.  When the battle is enjoined, You prevail, but against whom do You scoff?  Soldiers? Warriors?  Generals?  First, most assuredly, You scoff at those who lie to us, telling us and others that frenzy and panic and fury will win the day.  You will rebuke evil, and You do so through our prayers and peace.

 

There is a fierce fury, a terrifying, but forgive us when we fail to identify our real enemies, those who plot evil for the souls of men.  You confound those who set souls and nations ablaze through fear and hubris.  Indeed, satan will be crushed beneath our feet (Romans 16:20) if we will walk in the truth, praying for those we love.

 

 

Wikipedia, Public Domain

The photograph shows children preparing for evacuation from Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, some giving the Republican salute. It is donated to Wikipedia Commons by the estate of Olga Brocca Smith, and is dedicated to all innocent victims of war.