Afghanistan

World News This Week in Prayer, Thursday, September 13, 2018

“So we can say with confidence, with boldness, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.’ ” Hebrews 12:6

Precious Lord, take my hand,

Lead me on, let me stand,

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.

Through the storm, through the night,

Lead me on to the light.

Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.

Words and music: Thomas Dorsey Tune: PRECIOUS LORD

Precious Lord, around and about this incredible world of yours, your children are being threatened by the forces of nature: in the southeastern United States by Hurricane Florence; in the Philippines and Hong Kong by Typhoon Mangkhut; in Hawaii by Tropical Storm Olivia. And our overwhelming response is fear, as we worry about the impending damage from wind and rain.. Uplift us, Loving God. Fill us with the confidence that whatever befalls, you are with us. God of grace and mercy, hear our prayer.

God of Peace, around and about this hurting world of yours, your children are threatened by ongoing wars and their sequelae. News of massive military drills being held by Russia and China; air strikes in rebel-held Idlib province in Syria by the Syrian government and the suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, resulting in 68 dead and 165 injured bring worry and suffering. The crackdown in China against minority Muslim groups, especially the Uyghurs, with tens of thousands being sent to political re-education camps causes deep concern and grief. And our overwhelming response is a sense of helplessness, as we see ourselves as unable to make a difference. Uplift these, your own, Loving God. Fill them with confidence and hope that whatever befalls, you are with them and our loving concern supports them. God of courage and hope, hear our prayer.

God of Compassion and Justice, around and about this wonderful world of yours, your children are reaching out to one another in love and daring which we celebrate: Harper Nielson, the 9-year-old Australian schoolgirl, daring to protest her perceived injustice of the national anthem; Elissa Montanti of Staten Island, New York, founding an organization, Global Medical Relief Fund, to bring children injured in war or by natural disasters to the United States for medical care unavailable to them in their home countries; the courage of the Supreme Court of India for their landmark decision to legalize and decriminalize consensual gay sex. Uplift them all, Loving God. Fill them and us with a sense of justice which gives us courage to stand up for what is right. God of all people, hear our prayer.

When our way grows drear,

precious Lord, linger near,

when our lives are almost gone,

hear our cry, hear our call,

hold our hands lest we fall,

Take our hands, precious Lord, lead us home. Amen and amen

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, August 23, 2018

God of compassion

God of green earth and snow
God of darkness
And illumination
God of new things
And of things torn apart
God of waters and maker of dry land
God of tender souls clinging
God in this moment and across all sunrises and the universe

Help us to understand our place in this troubled world, this vast and complex mystery. We ask for a deepening of our caring for our neighbor.

Be with the people of Kerala, India, with nearly 800,000 living in 4,000 emergency relief camps. Sustain them as monsoons continue to cause massive flooding, landslides, and strain resources. Be with rescue teams as they move people to safety. Support community leaders as they discern where to turn their attention in this catastrophe – to straining dams, deforested areas, impassable roads and railways. Comfort those who mourn the over 350 dead and missing.

Bring comfort to the people of Ghazni, Afghanistan, under siege as war continues. Be with those fleeing, those in harm’s way and those unable to leave. Have mercy on the suffering and be with those who have lost over 400 loved ones. Comfort those in the Shia neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi who mourn the 34 people killed in a suicide bomb attack in front of the education center in Kabul. Bring relief to the injured and those who mourn as a cease-fire offer receives further rocket launches, killings and abductions.

Come Holy Spirit, walk the streets of Pacaraima, Brazil, as residents are attacking migrant encampments of people fleeing Venezuela. Open the borders of our hearts to recognition of the universal need for a home.

Care for your people in Indonesia and especially on the quaking island of Lombok. Landslides, unstable and stressed buildings, people moved to living in tents, so much loss in this catastrophe. We ask for your compassion for those who mourn for the dead, 436 and rising. Sustain the hearts and hands of those who rescue and tend.

Teach us to love in powerful ways, in earnest ways that speak out against malice, prejudice and injustice. Bring wisdom, right action and compassion during the unprecedented worldwide displacement of over 68.5 million people. Protect and sustain the 44,000 people newly displaced today and each day around the world. Open the hearts of those who want to deny refugees a place of safety – in the US, for example, where President Trump’s administration is rumored to be considering a second sharp reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the country.

Be with the people of Assam, India, as their leaders sort citizens from non-citizens. Help us to grow in humanity, called insaniyat in Hindi.

Sustain the teams who courageously work at the wildfire front lines day and night, with nearly 2 million acres burning in the US and 2,500 hectares in Canada, with yet more fires around the world, from The Great Dividing Range, Australia, to the coast of Greece. Comfort those who flee waiting to return uncertain of what they will find. Bring strength to those involved in the longer-term care, as overwhelming anxiety and grief is sorted and sense made of loss. Protect the wildlife. Protect us all from the consequences of the ashes spreading through the atmosphere, even to places distant from the fires themselves.

Holy Spirit come beside us. May we speak words that offer dignity and R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Inspire us even in these times of dread to make a joyful noise and walk in your light.

God of Love
God of fields and harvests
Of clouds, rivers and forests
God of night
And of broad noonday
God of the broken, sick and near death
God of the healed
God in this moment and across all sunsets and the universe
We call to you with these prayers for the people.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, August 16, 2018

God, today is one of those days when it is hard to pray. One of the days when life feels so overwhelming that shutting down might seem like the best option. And on days like today, we have this community of prayer that lifts us up. Right now, we pray for each one reading this prayer right now, each one hearing this prayer right now, and each one needing prayer right now. Although we may be unknown to each other, we are known to you, O God of all people.

Whatever our daily lives may bring, it can be easy for us to get caught up in ourselves and forget You and Your beloved children. We often look past the struggles of others and choose frustration rather than empathy. We often see one another as competition rather than brothers and sisters. Help us to really see, and know, each other – that we may feel our connection to You and to Your world more and more each day, we pray.

Holy One, we lift up our prayers for your Divine creation all over the world:

For the 48 people who have been killed and the 67 who were injured in the suicide bomb explosion at an education center in Kabul, Afghanistan.
For the 39 victims of a collapsed bridge in Genoa, Italy, and the survivors of the 40 vehicles that fell 45m (148′) in Tuesday’s collapse.
For the thousands of victims of the abuse by more than 300 priests accused of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, USA, over several decades.
For the 47 or more people who overdosed on synthetic marijuana, or K2, in New Haven, CT, USA on Wednesday.
For the more than 21 victims of the boat carrying school children that sank crossing a flooded area near the Nile River in Sudan, Africa.
For the more than 100 people thought to be dead in devastating monsoon floods in India – the worst in almost a century.

Comfort those experiencing grief and loss. Relieve those who are suffering. Bring strength to those who are hospitalized, confined to homes, or undergoing tests. We pray the day when we all recognize that no matter where we are from in the world, what we look like, or what we believe, we are bound together as one human family.

Eternal God, by whose power we are created and by whose love we are sustained, although we know You are always with us, on the days when it is hard to pray for ourselves, on the days when Your love may feel a little further from us, may we be lifted up by our sisters and brothers, who You have created for this very purpose. And on the days when we feel strong, may we be moved to honor Your creation with our thoughts, prayers, and actions.

We ask all of these things in Your many Holy names. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, May 24, 2018

“God hears ‘amen’ wherever we are.” –Radney M. Foster

We come to you, O Lord, from many places, joining our voices to praise you and to ask for your intercession.

We know You hear us regardless of where we are physically.

• In places where we hope peace is possible: between North and South Korea, between Israel and Palestine, and between the major political parties in many countrys.
• In places torn by war, violence, and all manner of human atrocities: Syria, Nigeria, and Afghanistan.
• In places of political unrest: Venezuela, Italy, and China.
• In places preparing for the Atlantic Hurricane season: the Caribbean islands, Mexico, Bermuda, and the United States, especially Puerto Rico.
• In homeless shelters, in refugee camps, in houses of worship, in cities, on farms, and in all those places we call home.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We know You hear us regardless of where we are emotionally:
those grieving and those celebrating,
those marrying and those divorcing,
the baptized and the buried,
those caring for children and for the elderly,
those laboring and those unemployed,
all people at a beginning or an end.

Lord, grant us thy peace.

We know You hear us regardless of where we are spiritually:
during Ramadan, during morning mass, during the Sabbath;
at the beginning of a yoga practice, a labyrinth, a pilgrimage;
at the end of our lullabies;
and in the midst of our doubts.

In a great universal exhale, we say together,
Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 3 May 2018

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul. (African American spiritual)

O God, when our hearts are breaking, when our souls are wounded, to whom else shall we turn? Where else shall we bring our prayers, our concerns, our woundedness, our confusion, but to you? For you have the words of eternal life, those words of comfort and peace for which we long, even as tears for the hurts of this world course down our faces.

Together, we pray for the people of Armenia, Honduras, Libya, Malaysia, and Turkey, as unrest over elections continues, as the people yearn for justice and truth and integrity from their political leaders. And our hearts yearn with them.

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul.

Together, we pray for the victims of the two suicide bomb attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan, along with the families of those killed including 8 journalists and photographer Shah Marai; for the victims of the blast at a mosque in northeast Nigeria which has killed more than 27, as the people yearn for hope and peace and safety. And our hearts yearn with them.

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul.

Together, we pray for those seeking the abatement of nuclear threats in Iran and North Korea, as people everywhere fear for the continued well-being of this planet and its inhabitants. And our hearts yearn with them.

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul.

Together, we pray that the supporters and opponents of DACA and immigration in the United States might come to some just agreement, even as those in the caravan of Central Americans seeking asylum long only to be seen as people of worth. And our hearts yearn with them.

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul.

O God of all creation, you call us all your children and so, when our hearts are breaking, when our souls are wounded, we turn to you. We bring our prayers, our concerns, our woundedness, our confusion to you. For you have the words of eternal life, those words of comfort and peace for which we long. And so, guide our steps as we work for peace and justice. Guide our words as we speak out for what is right. Open our hearts to the truth of your love and acceptance and compassion, that we might be your presence in this world of ours. Let this be so. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, February 22, 2018

“Be still, and know that I am God”
(Psalm 46:10)

O God, O God, my God, our world is full of anything but stillness. There is no silence to be found, I fear; no quiet about. We hear of your “still small voice”, we know You have taught that there is virtue in silence, we yearn for “green pastures” and “still waters” where You can restore our souls.

But all around us are sounds we cannot escape. The crack and pop of gunfire in schools in the United States. The screams of targeted children, the moans of the wounded, the sirens of police and ambulances, the shouts and gasps of families. These echo the bomb blasts of terrorists and bomb-strikes of armies in Syria and Afghanistan and Iraq, and the aftermath of it all. So close to home.

We hear the loud voices of those who demand change, or peace, or justice. We hear the chatter of politicians and pundits who explain away change, or peace, or justice. And now we hear a children’s chorus of victims and survivors, reviving the ancient Biblical hope that “a little child shall lead them.” We hear the calls for action, for accountability. And we hear the mockery and insults as clearly as we hear the passion and demands.

We hear the pleas of refugees in camps in Bangladesh and Kenya and Lebanon, and migrants on the seas; we hear the scratch of the pen across the paper as decisions are made about who shall be free or turned away. We hear the whimpering of the hungry, the wailing of the mournful who do not feel blessed.

God, we hear it all, and we are caught in-between. We want silence and stillness in order to know You, and to hear You. But we know we should not block out such sounds. Our world cries out to us, as surely as they cry out to You. In partnership with You we hear. Lord, as much as we might wish to be, we pray for, an exemption. Be known to us through all these sounds. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 25 January 2018

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. ~ Psalm 111:10

…we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ~ 1 Corinthians 8:1

…anyone who loves God is known by him. ~ 1 Corinthians 8:3

Holy God, revealed in the incarnate Jesus, the Christ, and gifted to each one of us through your Holy Spirit, we often struggle to live in or even sing of your majesty and transforming love. Fill us with thankfulness for all the light and love we receive even in the middle of hard times. This light and love is your gift to the darkness and brokenness in each one of us and in the world.

Come fill us with your light, love and wisdom, so we may be channels for you to lighten the darkness where we are.

Often, Father God, we think we’re okay or doing not so bad, yet in our willful blindness we miss the pain and suffering in our communities: those who lose jobs, run into financial difficulties, lose homes, cannot pay for food, education and basic necessities; the lonely; those grieving; those bullied and maltreated for whatever reason. We all need help at different times, yet sometimes we get cocooned in our routine and safe lives, choosing to be unaware of the fragility of what we think makes us safe and secure. You God are our Rock, our Life and everlasting love.

Come fill us with your light, love and wisdom, so we may be channels for you to lighten the darkness where we are.

The relentless saga of egotistical arrogance continues in so many in leadership in all countries, businesses, governments, and organisations. Even leaders of faith groups seek self-aggrandisement and power over others. The havoc this wreaks is mirrored in all your world: in Eastern Ghouta, Syria; in Jalalabad, Afghanistan; in Kurdistan; in the Gambia trying to recover from the crimes committed by its former leader; in Yemen; in Austria; and in the wake of devastation following natural disasters in the USA, Mexico, France, Japan, and Cape Town, South Africa. Father God, give those in leadership understanding that the better way – your way – is to serve with compassion and lead in justice, truth and equity.

Come fill us with your light, love and wisdom, so we may be channels for you to lighten the darkness where we are.

We give thanks for the loving example of two sets of parents in India – one rich and Hindu, one poor and Muslim – where their newborn sons were switched at birth in error. After 3 years, they are continuing to bring up each other’s children while working to be part of each other’s lives. One parent said, “We all come from the same source and only become Hindu and Muslim once here.” Teach us to live and love all whom you have created, and all that you have created. May we touch each other and the earth lightly as sacred gifts from you.

Come fill us with your light, love and wisdom, so we may be channels for you to lighten the darkness where we are.

Holy and awesome God, your Son’s authority is found in integrity and living truth, not the assertion of power over others. Open our imaginations to new dimensions of your love, and heal us of all that severs us from you and one another and your Creation, that we may grow into the vision you unfold before us. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, October 19, 2017

Dear Lord,

Your people in Puerto Rico and across the Caribbean have looked up into rain flooded skies and out onto destroyed homelands, waiting for water, food, shelter and the provision of medical care. Open the hearts of decision makers to release funds to continue the rescue, to bring relief and stability. Smooth the communications to move people to care as the USNS Comfort (US naval ship) waits for the needy. Help us to grow in compassion as a people as we listen to news from hurricane-devastated places and during the long recovery, not forgetting the gulf coast.

We pray for the Rohingya peoples who await smugglers to take them across the Naf River between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Others make the treacherous journey to safety through jungles and mountains and into refugee camps such as Balukali, Kutupalong and Nayapara, where the depth of need is continually expanding. Dear God, our Comforter and Protector, be with the nation of Bangladesh and the NGO’s as they summon all their capacity to meet the needs of these deeply suffering refugees. Surround exhausted families with nourishing sleep. Tend to the children who make up 60% of the refugees – lost and torn from their families. Open our eyes to the horror of genocide, as a people are being erased from Myanmar’s history and annihilated. Come Holy Spirit. Guide the world as it seeks to address this calamity.

Some look up into smoke and ash filled skies in the western United States barely escaping burning homes and a tortured landscape and yet 10,000 firefighters – including 100 women prisoners working as firefighters – move toward the flames. Renew their energy to endure and guard their steps. We are so grateful for their unique skills in this treacherous work. Dear God, provide shelter to families bereft of everything they owned. Sustain the communities in their great work of serving these families, providing food, a listening ear, counseling and guidance in next steps and getting in touch with family. Be with the 42 families who have lost loved ones and the 68 families with unaccounted for loved ones. Hold them in their distress.

Some hide in the shelter of darkness yet afraid. “Has the fighting stopped?” Oh Lord, how seemingly endless is the noise and dust and calamity of war and the horrific suffering, the interminable loss and degradation. We pray for the peoples caught in the wars within wars, in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region of Kirkuk, for the police killed in Taliban raids and bombings in the Paktia and Ghazni provinces in Afghanistan. We pray for the dead and wounded civilians as they were waiting to get their identity cards. We pray for an end to 6 years of suffering in the Syrian civil war displacing 6.3 million people internally, causing the deaths of 400,000 with more than 5 million Syrians fleeing the country.

Open the hearts of combatants to give safe humanitarian access. Our hearts are torn again as we hear about the global food crisis, severe food insecurity, and the increasing risk of full on famine in northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Some are too week to sit or even cry, hungry to the point of death. Oh God, you are listening. You surround them. You love them. Open our hearts. Help us to prayerfully consider our time, talent and treasure. Help us to share the wealth from our tables. Bring peace in those places where war creates famine, where conflict creates war, where war seems to be endless.

We watched with deep concern as Ireland and the UK received the effects of Hurricane Ophelia downgraded to a tropical storm. We are saddened at the loss of life as severe winds toppled trees on to cars. We are grateful for advanced warning such that the Irish Defense Forces were ready where needed and schools were closed keeping children safe. Be with families in their sudden grief and with those experiencing the deep deep losses in Portugal and Spain as wildfires fanned by the winds of the very same hurricane have brought further catastrophe. Again we pray for the 6,000 firefighters and nations called to come together in these wildfires. Be with the injured and their caregivers as severe burns are treated. Comfort those who are in mourning of the over thirty-two victims including a one-month old infant taken so quickly. Many weep for their cherished lands and fields, and livestock so vulnerable. Comfort them in their mourning. Give them your strength.

And your people in Mogadishu, where the Somali nation again suffers a bombing so despicable and barbaric with over 276 lives destroyed in an instant. Oh Lord, we take-in this news of the over 300 injured and suffering, and families still searching for the missing. We hear of the need for donor blood, the exhausted hospital staff, and how they keep going, as its populace is weeping, weeping, weeping. Help them as they assemble and arise as a people to discern steps for increased stability and safety in their nation. Comfort your people of Somalia in their great sorrow. Bring them peace.

Guide us in our faith. Help us to seek your will.

May we rush to understand one another, to love urgently, and to grow steadily in becoming more tolerant.

From you comes all blessings and life itself.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 27

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple….
My eyes shed streams of tears because your law is not kept. Ps 119: 130, 136

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. Romans 8:26

Forgive us, Lord, for reducing your might, majesty, and power to fit our comfort zone. The news of world events overwhelms us. We can be assailed by doubts, fear, and despair while choosing to say that you are God over all. So often this masks, however scantily, our lack of faith and understanding.

Forgive us, Lord, we implore you.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

This week, whether in the northern or southern hemispheres of our shared planet, bush-fires, floods, snow storms, thunder storms, drought, famine, and melting glaciers causing water levels to raise world-wide have brought havoc and devastation to millions. Behind such abstract figures are individual stories of people who are just like us.

We pray for and give thanks for all aid agencies and people helping their neighbours in this time of great need. Forgive us for our heedless use of resources not rightly ours. Teach us to touch the earth lightly and to live thoughtfully and in harmony with the generous provisions in Creation you have given for us and all your children.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

We hear of wars and rumours of wars and violence in Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Egypt and at local levels in all of our own countries. Hatred and fear of difference make us dehumanise our neighbours and inflate ourselves. We continue to pray for justice for all regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or politics. We long for the time when this will be the norm throughout the world. Prince of Peace, jolt us awake when we casually slide into indifference and cruelty to each other. May we follow your example in our daily lives.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

We give thanks for the love and compassion for others often shown by wounded individuals. Jodi Ann Bickley from Birmingham, UK, who fights depression, has written over 4,000 letters of encouragement to complete strangers as part of her One Million Lovely Letters project started in 2013. These life-enhancing and life-changing letters have transformed the lives of the recipients and even helped youngsters in rural South Africa move beyond their experience of abuse and violence and marginalisation. Open us up to hear your prompts for loving acts you wish us to do and for the loving people you wish us to be.

Lord, hear us: may your Holy Spirit breathe life into our prayers.

Open our ears, glorious Lord Christ, to hear the music of your voice above the chaos of this world: the power of your love, your mercy for each one of us, and the wisdom and wonders of your law and commandments which promises to lead us from darkness to light. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, June 15, 2017

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore ask the overseer of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.
—Matthew 9.37-38

Harvest by Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Maybe the harvest is not bringing people to Christ
but gathering the fruits of the Spirit
God has sown in you
for the sake of the world.

Maybe it’s not an act of taking,
but receiving.

The harvest is plentiful
but few are the people who have gathered,
who have received the gifts, the grace,
the love growing in your heart,
and feasted on those fruits
to be strengthened to go out
and heal the wounded,
and be good news for the broken of the world.

The field stretches to the horizon.
There are more trees in this orchard
than stars in heaven.

What grace have you not yet harvested?
Go into that good harvest.
Here is a basket for your labors. Go.
Called together in the Spirit’s embrace, let us pray for the mending of God’s world.

Holy God, Loving God, Steadfast God, Compassionate God, looking at this world which You have created, this world over which You have given us stewardship, it is so easy to become discouraged and disheartened, to forget Your call to harvest Your grace, and to be good news for those who are broken. Sometimes all our tear-clouded eyes can see is the heartache and heartbreak which holds us in its thrall, making it difficult to see anything other than darkness and despair:

*Despair about an unknown blast which went off in eastern China, leaving at least seven people dead and over sixty-five others injured.

*Despair about a suicide car bombing into a hotel restaurant in Mogadishu, Somalia, where at least nineteen are dead and many others wounded

*Despair about the fire in the Grenfell Tower in London, England, where at least seventeen people have died and dozens of others are in hospitals, many of them in critical condition.

*Despair about the shooting in Virginia, US, at a Congressional baseball game practice, where six people were shot and the gunman was killed.

*Despair about Ohio, US student, Otto Warmbler, released by North Korea after seventeen months in captivity, who is in the hospital suffering from a severe neurological injury.

*Despair about the hundreds of civilian casualties in Raqqa, Syria, due to US-led air strikes.

*Despair about hot car deaths – deaths of children being left alone in vehicles during hot weather – occurring in the US, as three children have died in the last week.

*Despair about the road-rage shooting and killing of 2-year-old Laylah Washington of Memphis, Tennessee, US.

Holy God, Loving God, Steadfast God, Compassionate God, looking at this world which You have created, this world which You call us to co-create with You, open our eyes and our hearts to see the harvest of Your grace-filled love which is being made manifest in countless places, through countless people, children of Your own creation.

*The harvest of over one hundred and twenty migrants, who had been abandoned by traffickers without food or water in the Sahara desert, by Niger authorities.

*The harvest of the organization My Stealthy Freedom in Iran, led by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist who boldly organized #whitewednesdays to protest a law forcing Iranian women to wear head scarves.

*The harvest of the work of 26-year-old Rahmatullah Arman, who, through Teach for Afghanistan, has placed 80 graduates from Afghan universities into twenty-one schools to teach 23,000 students in the hope of reducing the country’s 60% adult illiteracy rate.

*The harvest of the election in Ireland of Leo Varadkar, of Indian descent, as the country’s youngest and first openly-gay prime minister.

Holy God, Loving God, Steadfast God, Compassionate God, looking at this world which You have created, this world which You love, we Your people reach out this day. We reach out with grief and gratitude, with worry and wonder, and with tears and triumph. We open ourselves to Your Spirit as it longs to fill us with the gifts of Your grace, to empower us with the strength and courage to speak truth, and to work for justice and the healing of wounds we encounter and cause. May it be so, today and every day.

Amen.