Weekly Prayers

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, July 25, 2019

He has shown all you people what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8 NIV

Let us pray.

We think of the 45 People beaten by organized thugs in Yuen Long, a far northwest metro station of Hong Kong. There is worry of collusion and payments being made to criminals to actually disrupt public safety as citizens are peacefully protesting. An extradition bill that sparked the civil protest has been suspended. Comfort the families of the injured. We ask that you bring clarity to leaders and especially the police as they sort out right action to address the turmoil. Bring justice where there is violent behavior and help us to show mercy where impoverished people seem to turn toward crime. Oh Lord, we hear of these horrendous things and bow our heads. Help us to walk humbly.

We remember the Paradise fire and morn the loss, loss that killed 85 people and devastated a small city. “Ahead of the Fire,” reported by the Arizona Republic (USA) and USA Today reflects and analyzes the fire and the human risk for people living in the west, and what and where prevention can happen to avert catastrophe. Help us to hear the Good News months later as wild fire specialists and other scientists sort out the over 500 high-risk western US communities like Paradise. We pray for the disabled, the elderly, the poor who may not have cell phones to hear an Amber alert, who live in housing that is substandard and fire prone. Bring compassionate services to them. We remember fires around the world that devastate communities leaving people with nothing. We pray that this report will inform policy and opportunities for just and equable action. Help us to live humbly and work for justice.

We seek courage of voice to declaim abuses in Sudan, as reported by the BBC this week, where the Rapid Support Forces have been accused of a massacre in which more than 120 people were killed and many of the dead dumped in the River Nile in early June. This quasi-ruling power in Sudan, fueled by its gold mining in Darfur, sends its gold to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Sudanese militiamen are now fighting in Yemen with the UAE and “policing” the border to Libya, extracting bribes, ransoms and levies. We shutter at the expanding web of war and the millions suffering in famine in Yemen. Lord, show your mercy; restore our sanity and resolve to take just action. Help us to speak with courage.

And help us to remember that through the work of the UN, 12 million refugees around the world have received essential supplies and 92,400 refugees have been resettled in 2018. Help us to live with thanks.

May we show devotion in all seasons, times of the day and spaces. We take out the garbage, fix a meal, lend a hand, soothe a baby, read to a child, fold the bedding, close a tent flap to shelter from rain, or linger a moment to look at the stars. Eternal One, you are with us in all these moments. May we feel your Holy Spirit even in the darkest of times. May Christ’s words to love infuse our hearts, minds and hands. Help us, indeed, to love mercy and to show mercy.

We close with the words of St. Francis of Assisi, For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 18 July 2019

As a mother comforts her child,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 66:13

Mother God,

How grateful we are, Lord, for your constant presence in our lives as we walk as little children on this earth. As we look around this world and see the awful things which happen to your children, we ask that you remind us to be more like curious babes who look at their parents with love. Help us to adore you as a newborn baby looks at their mother for the first time.

Teach your children to love you, Lord.

God, we pray for all those who suffer in this world from disease and malnutrition. As your dear children die in the DR Congo from the second largest outbreak of the ebola virus, we ask that you be with those suffering as they watch their family and friends die around them. Soothe the cries of those suffering and heal your dear children.

Heal your children, Lord.

God, we ask that you be with those who have no place to call home. We ask that you be with all immigrants and refugees who suffer and live in fear. We pray that your loving presence may always be with your children who cry out in fear of not knowing what may happen to them next.

Be with your children, Lord.

We pray for your children who are experiencing very warm temperatures and are suffering from lack of water due to droughts in India, Zimbabwe, France, and many other places your children call home. May the water return to nourish and heal the babes who are parched with thirst and are in need of new life.

Soothe your children, Lord.

We are your children, Lord. We come to you in gratitude for all of your children and new little babies who are only just learning about this world. Guide us on your path so that we might be ever closer to you. May you always be our Mother God, and may you teach us how to be the best children we can be. We know, Lord, that you are the ultimate giver of life and love. May we always come to you, dearest parent of us all, so that we might receive your nourishing love this day and always.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 11, 2019

Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

Lord, there is so much happening in our world we hardly know where to direct our attention and can only be grateful that you see all and answer the prayers of all your people. So we place in your hands our concerns for our environment from the high temperatures in Alaska to the increasing destruction of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil –
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

When we celebrate the small step for man, the giant leap for mankind and Jodrell Bank becomes a world heritage site help us to remember we have only one world. As New Zealand increases it’s effort to eradicate invasive plant and animal species which threaten the extinction of most of it’s native ecology while scientists announce the identification of the seeds most likely to survive and adapt to climate change –
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

With grief we read of the preventable deaths and suffering in Yemen; with shared sorrow we hear of the forcible detention of Uighur and children separated from parents in China; with mourning we learn of mass graves of migrants in Texas –
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

For all in positions of power and those who hold authority, in church and state, industry and technology, for our politicians and government employees, civil servants, and judiciary –
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer

For the unexpected mercies that often don’t make the news, such as 2 major earthquakes in California without loss of life and with opportunities for scientists to study, we give thanks. For the small mercies of walking with friends, human and canine, for the gift of families and neighbours, for the enjoyment of our fragile blue planet we give thanks and praise.
Amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 4, 2019

“My Country ‘Tis of Thee Sweet Land of Liberty of Thee I Sing”
(Hymn, Samuel Francis Smith)

Holy God, I write from my little corner of the world, my little neighborhood of my native land, the United States, celebrating its birth. You have heard the fun, fireworks explosions from sea to shining sea. You have heard us sing our proud anthems that assume your holiest blessing. You have heard our gratitude for purple mountains’ majesty and amber waves of grain, for liberty and patriot’s dreams. But we are not alone, O God.

Holy God, you called Abraham out of Ur to become a people with a promised land to be their home. Good and ill were done to make it so. Both good and ill are ongoing the world over. Nations have been crafted and birthed and come into being in every imaginable way.

Each people celebrate their exceptionalism, their origin’s story, their unique relationship with you, the God of all creation. We all have our myths, our heroes, our struggles, our obstacles, our pride and our fear, our walls visible and invisible, our victories and losses real and imagined.

God, from each in our own land, for our blessings may we be humble, for our opportunities may we be grateful, for our sins may we be forgiven, for our brokenness may we be healed, for our future may we be inspired and guided.

God, for all peoples yearning for the fullness of life, hope and opportunity we pray.

This Is My Song
(Hymn, Lloyd Stone, Vs.2)

“My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine; but other lands have sunlight too, and clover, and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

O hear my song, thou God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.”

Amen

World News This Week In Prayer – Thursday, June 27, 2019

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2 (NRSV)

Rescuing and Redeeming God, we lift our eyes up to you.

We lift our eyes out of the chaos of our lives seeking to see where your Spirit is moving in the world acheter generique viagra. Searching for her, longing for her to sweep through and transform chaos to beauty as she did at creation.

And yet there are times where we see only more chaos, more heartache, more brokenness.

In the United States, where flooding and fires damage property and take lives, and where political wrangling separates families inside and outside detention centers – send your wisdom.
In Europe where many are dealing with record-high temperatures and the potential for fire and heat-related illnesses – bring comfort and safety.\
In Malaysia where over 5,000 turtles were rescued from being illegally sold in the pet trade, and countries around the globe where wildlife is endangered for human greed – guide us to care for our planet.

In all crises, personal or global,
In all conflicts, large or small,
In all of our life circumstances…

We lift our eyes up to you, O God.
We trust in you and the source of our help and our hope.
We pray, and we work, for your loving presence
in our hearts,
in our homes,
in our communities,
in our countries,
in our world.

Fill us with your spirit and presence, we pray.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, June 20, 2019

Holy One,
Our hands reach out, our voices call forth, our hearts lift up, and in the act of praying, once again, we discover you. Our words are but a small measure of the world’s great need, yet as we draw close to you, you draw close to us.
We pray to you, O Lord.

Comforting One,
We hold up those in Yemen, Venezuela, and Somalia, those whose lives leave them trembling in the dark, whose situations leave them hungry in the day. We pray for the 70 million displaced people worldwide, two-thirds of which come from the countries of Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Somalia. Hold these, your children. Nurture them, shelter them, love them. We give thanks for those who are doing the work of resettling them. No matter where the spotlight of the world’s attention shines, you see those who are struggling, in every city, every village, every alcove, around the world.
So, we pray to you, O Lord.

Righteous One,
We hold up those in the streets in Sudan, Haiti, Malawi, and Hong Kong – those protesting non-violently around the world, and those who find themselves losing hope in justice. As for those who have come to believe that violence is the only way to get things done, we pray that you soften their hearts, strengthen their spirits, and reveal your steadfast work in the world. Break apart all prisons of tyranny, shake loose all dominions of greed, bring forth your reign of mercy and righteousness, here on earth.
We pray to you, O Lord.

Almighty One,
When we confront events of the past, pain and questions can blossom in our hearts. Walk with all those who are reliving moments of trauma in recent weeks. Walk with those in Kenya, as four young men are charged in connection with the 2015 militant raid at a university. Walk with those in Rwanda, as the nation acknowledges the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1994 genocide. Walk with those in California, Puerto Rico, Texas, (USA) the coastlines, and other areas affected by natural disasters, as they face another hurricane and wildfire season. Walk with those celebrating Juneteenth this week in the United States, as well as those who are pausing to acknowledge the 400th anniversary of documented slaves arriving on the shores of the American colonies.
So, we pray to you, O Lord.

Jesus our Christ,
Your power is not our power, your healing is not our healing, your love is not our love. At the end of the day, at the end of our lives, we turn all that we are, and all that we hope to be, over to your receiving arms. Guide us, renew us, redeem us. We cannot do anything apart from you .
We pray to you. Lord have mercy.
Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, June 13, 2019

Wherever you are right now, take a moment to feel God’s presence and center yourself in that presence.

Holy One, our faith journeys reveal new things to us each and every day. Each journey is different, and each journey brings forth feelings of both faith and doubt, of both righteous anger and of peace. Help us to recognize that no matter what we may be feeling in this very instant, You are with us.

Creator of all life, remind us that we are created in Your own image. And that each and every person we come across is also created in Your image. Fearfully and wonderfully made by you. As we pray for the world, may we realize that these are not just places, but that they are made up of people who are beloved by You.

May your presence be felt among the protesters in Hong Kong, who have been met with tear gas and rubber bullets and arrests. May they be safe and unharmed as they stand up for justice. We also lift up prayers for the justice system in China as a whole, and for the Chinese government. May it be guided gy righteousness rather than fear or control.

May your presence be felt by the thousands affected by the drought in India who have had to evacuate their homes and villages. And for the ongoing problems of drought year after year in these same areas. We pray for your land and for your people, that they may find some aid and comfort in community.

May your presence be felt by all those who have been shut out of houses of worship because of who they love. On this 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York City, we recognize how far we have come and how far we still need to go toward equal rights for the LGBTQ+ Community. We forget that in many parts of the world, homosexuality is still punishable by prison or even death. We lift up the people of Botswana, where same-sex relationships have just been decriminalized, and pray for the day where Love is Love all over the world.

May your presence be felt by our children, as we pray specifically for the 5-year-old who died of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the 6 migrant children who have recently died in custody at the United States-Mexico border. May we learn to value all of our children, who are our greatest hope for the future.

And, finally, we pray for all those places in the world that so desperately need to feel Your presence, O God. May they feel the presence of Justice; may they feel the presence of Compassion; may they feel the presence of Love. And may we each be vessels of Your presence all the days of our lives. Amen.

World News This Week In Prayer – Thursday, 6 June, 2019

“God of grace and God of glory
on thy people pour thy power…
Grant us wisdom
grant us courage
for the living of these days.”
(Hymn, Harry Emerson Fosdick)

Holy God, we sing our hymn of faith with faith, sometimes in the spirit of the modern proverb to “fake it ‘till we make it”. Our hymns, our prayers, our sermon, and teachings and studies, our very worship strive to reach your grace, your glory, your power, your wisdom and your courage, for the living of these days.

Lord God, in these days we have seen the pomp and circumstance in England among President, Queen, and Prime Minister. We hear the echoes of hope and horror from China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square. We remember the sacrifices of D-Day when so many entered the Valley of the Shadow of Death, yearning to end a great evil. We marvel at the exercise in democracy in India, and yet worry about democracy’s fragility in the face of the most strident fears. We watch the migration of hopes and dreams across borders and seas, escaping violence and poverty and oppression. We hear the voices of protest and the response of gunfire in Nicaragua, Sudan, and Venezuela.

Loving God, yes, we see and hear and feel and marvel and worry and watch. And pray. We pray that your Holy presence will be known in every circumstance. We pray that your grace, glory, and power, of which we sing so hopefully, will bless those whose lives are so frail, or empty, or lost.

And we pray that you will grant us wisdom, and grant us courage, for the living of these days. For those in power and those without, for the 1% and not, for the privileged and the denied, for the believers and the doubters, for the whole and the broken, be our Redeemer, our Messiah, our Savior, our Strong Deliverer, our Trinity of all that is Holy. Amen.

World News The Week in Prayer- Thursday, May 30. 2019

(6/1/19 Apologies to our readers. Due to my own sheer stupidity – aka, forgetting to restart the emails after changing a setting – the prayers didn’t email on schedule this week. Mea culpa! -Andee, World in Prayer founder)

Holy One,In our prayers, we seek you and in our praying, we feel the air stirred by your Spirit.

Our spirits rise to meet you, and even in the rising, we find you descending as a dove to meet us.

Our hearts drop into disappointment, and even in the falling, we find your wings beneath us, lifting and carrying us forth.

Reveal your Spirit to all who need your presence. Carry us forth to pray for the world.

Reveal your Spirit to those who live in Israel, Britain, India, and other places contorted by frustrations with leaders and wounded by political maneuverings.

Reveal your Spirit to those who live in Nigeria, as they pass the 4 year anniversary of the kidnapping of the Chibok girls and as kidnapping blooms as a business.

Reveal your Spirit to the family and friends of Terrill Thomas, who died of profound dehydration in a United States jail cell, after officials turned off his water supply; reveal yourself to all those who care of someone being held in prison or a detention center—and reveal your Spirit to the prisoners themselves.

Reveal your Spirit to those in Bangladesh riven with despair, anger, and grief over the death of Nusrat Jahan Rafi and the sixteen men charged with killing her.

Reveal your Spirit to those negotiating and debating over the increasingly tense relationship between Iran and United States, Israel and Gaza, and other places of fear, loathing, and historic violence.

Reveal your Spirit in the walking and the words of Hyppolite Ntigurirwa, a genocide survivor, as he walks through his country of Rwanda, hoping to unite the country in remembering and healing from the 1994 genocide.

Reveal your Spirit to those people whom we do not name or even know, but who are held by love in your heart.In all these places, make your presence known.To all these people, reveal your self.

Bear each beloved child on the wings of your abiding Spirit, until all might realize that, no matter what happens, you will never let them go. We need you, O Holy One. So we pray. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 23 May 2019

Creator of the universe, the same yesterday, today and forever and yet new every morning:

You made the world in beauty. Open our hearts to your power that moves around us and between us and within us, until your glory is revealed in our love of all communities. Transform us and all communities by your justice and compassion, and bring healing to all that is broken.

We pray for those who fail to make headlines:

those caught up in Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo;
those who, least able to afford it, suffer the effects of trade tariffs through dearer clothes and shoes;
those who, living with threat of job loss caused by over production, are made to feel it is their fault as we remember especially the 25,000 connected to British Steel in Great Britain; and
those who live with the tornado season, the fire season, the alternation of drought and flood.

As we fail to notice the aftermath of violence and hatred on our streets and fomented in hearts, open our eyes and ears so that truth might not go unspoken and good news might not go unheeded.

In all the interconnectedness of politics, elections, and economics which go unnoticed when no one has the courage to speak out, the interests of multi-nationals muzzle truly free speech with non-disclosure. We give thanks for the everyday, unheralded, heroes:

those who give of their time, talents, and treasures to support Mozambique following Cyclone Idae and Cyclone Kenneth;
those who rush into areas even as terrorist attacks are happening;
those who bring justice to minorities despite the prevailing social climate in their region, such as the mother who fought for justice after communal riots in Gujarat, India and the judges whose decisions brought that justice; and
those who seek rational answers in the face of superstition and fear, such as the scientists in France investigating the seismic activity off the small island of Mayotte.

We give thanks for those who are never satisfied with the accepted wisdom and want to research further, to know more, to understand.

We pray that your Kingdom of justice and peace will come as we learn more and understand each other better. Amen.

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