Dear Lord, Great Mystery, Comforter and Reconciler of All.
In your Great Mystery you are a bulwark, a fortress and watchtower. You protect and shield and send light forth to guide and unite. We build walls, over 70 of them across lands and around the world from the U.S.-Mexican border to the fences separating Hungary and Serbia and those between Botswana and Zimbabwe. People wait at these walls. They hunger. They need shelter. They need safety and comfort. Help us to see the other as self. Help us to practice your great commandment to love one another.
We pray for the over 10,000 people who have drowned while crossing the Mediterranean Sea since 2015. Lord show your mercy upon so many. Comfort the families who know not where their loved ones are – living or dead. We did not welcome them in as survivors in many instances. Open our hearts and enlighten our paths to be caring, to show concern and to take right action. In 2019 alone over 800,000 people have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexican border. We pray for those who are scapegoated and dismissed. We pray for those who are marginalized, imprisoned, separated from family, mothers and fathers from children. Be with those who seek to console and bring justice to such great inequity and horror.
We grieve and so often feel helpless. Shine your light. Help us to recognize your will even in days that seem so dark. Help us to step through our feelings of overwhelm and fear recognizing your spirit will sustain us as we move into taking actions of kindness and compassion. Amplify what we give. Help us to understand that you nourish all. Fill our mouths with soothing words. Remove our bitterness and prejudice. Give us ears to hear those crying and weeping, evening screaming for help. May we never turn away without turning around and changing our minds, and turning back to those who are suffering.
We pray for those in harm’s way in unsafe homes and where entire families suffer. We are alarmed that a new report notes emergency rooms in the U.S. are seeing an increase in children suffering from sexual abuse. Open our eyes. Help us to listen and bring our best care to our children and youth. Sustain counselors and parents, teachers and coaches and all of those who provide guidance and a caring safety net.
We pray as fires continue and the dry season endures in Australia, throughout the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S. and so many parts of the world. Help us to understand our role as stewards as great and rapid changes come to our rainforests, salmon runs, eroding shores, rural and not so rural villages and towns. We know that you keep all in your watch, that you see beyond the blaze and ash filled air even when we are hunkered down and fearing for our lives. Sustain those who serve and provide relief for the long haul. Protect our firefighters, community volunteers and those serving while serving time in prison.
We call upon you in these times of grief and unrest, uncertainty and calamity.
Help us to see your design, to do your will in our short span of life, to grow wise in thought and be quick to nourish those around us.
May the blessing of You, You who are our Strength and Refuge sustain us this day, in this moment and all of our days.
Amen.
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