Iran

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, January 14th, 2021

Dear God,

Today we long to be held. We long to be held, not by the hateful actions we see on our televisions. Not by a virus that continually kills thousands upon thousands. Not by our divisions and the things which cause us to break apart. We long to be held by your unbreakable, unshakeable, and infinite love. We long to be covered by you – that we can take a breath and step away from the chaos happening in our world. And yet we know that we too must do the work to make our community and world a place filled with your love and your justice.

Remind us, Lord, that this is your world, and that no matter what happens here to any of us, we always remain yours and belong fully and completely to you. We ask that you help us to embody you as we find a way to spread your justice in this world and in all of us who remain so broken.

God, although we long to forget the events of this week happening in our world, we still choose to lift up all of the feelings we feel in our bodies to you: our sadness, our anger, our helplessness, our confusion, our disgust, our desire to change ourselves and those around us, our longing to move on, our wish for hope. All of these feelings, and many others, we lift up to you and we ask that you take them as we also continue to work through them ourselves. We pray that we, and those around us, may have understanding as we all work through our feelings differently. We ask that you help us to find a way to sit with our emotions while also sitting with you.

We realize God that although we want to separate ourselves from the actions of others, we know we are part of it all too. We know this, O God, and so we ask that you forgive us and guide us to check ourselves for the hatred, the racism, the bigotry, and the lack of love that we show in the small and big ways that we don’t realize, or that we choose to ignore. Guide us Lord and deepen our hearts that we might realize that no matter how good we think we are, we need to make sure that we are embodying your love in every action and in every word we say.

God, as we mourn the events of this past week where hatred was seen at the United States capitol building, we also recognize all the suffering in our community, country, and world. We pray for Uganda, where the internet is blocked and security has been stepped up as counting gets under way after polls closed in a hotly contested election that has been marked by violence in which dozens have been killed. We pray for The Netherlands, where the Dutch coalition government is in danger of collapse over a scandal over child benefits lasting 8 years

We ask for your presence as the world experiences our single Covid-19 highest death toll – over 13,000 in one day (over 4,000 people in the U.S. alone). We pray for the places where the number of positive test results continues to climb all around the world, as lockdowns continue to grow longer. We pray for knowledge and support as a variant of the virus with much higher transmission rates has now been detected in 45 countries.

We pray for comfort in Indonesia, where all contact has been lost with a passenger jet that carried 50 people.

As war and violence continue across our world, we pray for peace and pray for the loved ones of the dozens killed in Syria by Israeli airstrikes apparently targeting positions and arms depots of Iran-backed forces located there.

We pray for comfort as we continue to experience losses of all kinds this season – the lives of so many, broken relationships, jobs and sources of income, as well as the anniversaries of so many losses which we remember and continue to mourn.

God, there is so much. So many things are happening in our world that we cannot wrap our minds around, and so we ask that you may help us. That you may hold us as we cannot hold ourselves. That we may find you in all of the little places, in all of the things we have to do in any given week – we ask that you walk with us and that we may find little pieces of comfort and joy throughout our week. Even when we are not strong and have so little to give – we know that you have so much to give. We ask that you may be the comforting presence to each of those in our community – that your unshakeable and infinite love will carry us through and hold us today and always.

In your name we pray.
Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 7 January 2021

Editor’s note: World In Prayer needs a few more writers and editors! Our team consists of 12-15 volunteers, from several different countries and continents. Each week, one person writes the prayers in response to international news. A second person then edits and posts the prayers online. Because we rotate who writes and edits, you would end up serving approximately once every five or six weeks.

Due to life changes, some of our team members need to cut back. So, we’re looking for people who deeply care about our world, see God’s hand at work throughout all creation and all persons, and are inspired to help write and produce these prayers. If you are interested, please send an email to worldinprayer@aol.com.

Though I may speak with bravest fire,
And have the gift to all inspire,
And have not love; my words are vain;
as sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

Though I may give all I possess,
And striving so my love profess,
But not be giv’n by love within,
The profit soon turns strangely thin. [i]

Our shining Child,
Out of the Nativity you call to all nations, all peoples.

Yet nations build walls, lay mines and militarize their borders. Watchtowers are built and billions in electronic surveillance deployed. O little town of Bethlehem, a beloved carol, is today a town suffering, partitioned. Help us to reconcile these injustices as land is taken, houses destroyed and people’s movement severely restricted. Walls comprise a growing Border Industrial Complex in 2021. We pray for the peoples in Israel where six walls exist; in Morocco, Iran and India each having three walls; South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Hungary and Lithuania each with two walls, and all countries who violate human rights in this new and growing apartheid.[ii] We pray mightily for the peoples of Syria nearly surrounded as five nations have put up walls for a people utterly displaced and ravaged. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.

We pray for those who seek asylum and are “neither here, nor there.” We pray for those who have traveled unbelievable distances and through unimaginable harms to be turned away, silenced, detained and imprisoned. Be with us in this complex suffering. It feels so upside down. We pray for those from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador the so called Northern Triangle where so many have fled due to record levels of violence, torture and death. Our spirits long as we hear how severe the terror must be for parents to send their children alone to flee.[iii] They cross into Mexico and the US. We pray for the Rohingya in Myanmar escaping genocide and now displaced in Bangladesh. Guard them. Sustain them. We pray for the leaders in all of these countries.

We pray for those who grow, harvest and transport food that we may take for granted in these times where shelves are stocked and gas seems plenty, … and in these same times where COVID and famine and war keep house together in Yemen[iv] and now South Sudan, Burkina Faso and northeastern Nigeria, and where 16 other countries are entering famine where children are the first to silently suffer and die. Though I may give all I possess.

We pray where reports of war, political instability, civil war, humanitarian strife and years of occupation are endured. We call out in prayer for peace in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, Somalia, Venezuela, Mali, Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Republic of Congo, the US and Iran relations, the India and Pakistan conflict, North Korea, between Israel and Palestine, the terrorizing by the Boko Haram in Nigeria, the criminal violence in Mexico, the enmity of Turkey and Kurdish troops, Egypt, and Ukraine. Lord have mercy.

The news of the world is on our radios, TV, laptops, phones, newspapers and word of mouth. We hear of protests in streets. We hear of the breaking of curfews and mass gatherings as during a rave in France. We hear of rage and violence in the US, including the shocking invasion of the US Capitol by reactionary factions, who have been goaded on for months by the words of elected officials. Help us to remember and live out the truth that, in the words of U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black, “…words matter, and the power of life and death is in the tongue.” The news tolls of the police shooting of Andre Hill in Columbus, Ohio, USA as Casey Goodson, Jr. was being laid to rest after a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed him at the doorstep of his Columbus home earlier this month. We grieve and are angered, we march, we lay flowers and light candles. Help us to discern right action lest – My words are vain; as sounding brass.

The news tolls the deaths from COVID19, the overflow in hospitals, surge upon surge. We pray for the teams that know no border at the bedside, vaccine clinic, lab or as first responders. We are hopeful for the multitude of COVID vaccines coming to communities. We call for equity in vaccine distribution as developing nations manifest such a great need. May the wealthy countries dig deeper to stave off further crisis. Unify us in this time of horrendous loss of life and the devastation that has reached in some way into each of our homes and neighborhoods and circles the globe. Protect those in severe economic insecurity from further debt and eviction. Help us to universalize health care access. We pray in gratitude as increased access to women’s health care in Argentina is manifested. Comfort the grieving in every nation, in every town and village. Our spirits long.

We pray for the journalist teams that film, write and publish with risk of death as they give voice and document the injustices around the world. Help us to listen as they lift these tentative voices to the world’s stage. Help each of us to find our voice, and remind those of us with public platforms of our deep responsibility to speak the truth in love. Magnify the Good News. May it stream through all of these spaces – guide every deed.

Help us to honor the multitude of indigenous peoples[v] who keep the land and guard it’s teachings. We pray that the pressures of extraction that degrade rivers, displace tribes and communities, and cultivate institutional racism can be acknowledged for what they are – social and environmental and climate injustices – as they have been through the ages. The marginalized are among us and in the news daily. These transgressions trample our relationship to you, your kin-dom, and all of creation. Help us to hear and heed their warnings. Repair these wrongs. Reconcile us to right action. Come spirit.

Bring us to a new accounting and clarity in these opening days of 2021. Forgive us for the deeds done that cannot be undone, the sins and trespasses and willfulness that did not serve. Open our hearts to inward love, to one and other, nation-to-nation in a new way – in the Good News you gave to the world–of Christ’s birth, his baptism, journey to the cross and resurrection. Help us to forgive one another as we are sheltered and made whole by this great love. Help us to repair, restore and amend what is ours to do. Lord in your great compassion hear us.

Come, spirit, come, our hearts control,
Our spirits long to be made whole,
Let inward love guide every deed;
By this we worship and are freed.[vi]

Amen.

[ii] https://www.tni.org/en/walledworld

[iii] https://www.wola.org/analysis/children-fleeing-violence-central-america-face-dangers-mexico/

[iv] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/opinion/sunday/2020-worst-year-famine.html

[v] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indigenous_peoples

[vi] Hopson

World News this Week in Prayer, Thursday, October 22, 2020

“I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

Dear God,

Our world is changing in ways that we never imagined. We are in need of your unwavering love. We live in a world which holds so much pain and need – need for hope, peace, expressed love, justice and heartfelt understanding. Comfort us. Strengthen us. God, our world might be changing, but you are changeless. You remain with us. Help us to find new ways to live and to love acknowledging our diversity and honoring differences.

God, relationships seem to be everchanging. When things fall apart, we ask that you bind us up, heal our spiritual brokenness and pain. We know, Lord, that you are a part of all of us, and so we know that you deeply care for all of our relations. Whether connections with family, friends, work mates and neighbors or in our expanding interactions around the world we ask that you bring your peace to one and many. We pray for the liaisons between China and the United States as tensions continue to rise. May peace always prevail and may conversations be stateswoman-like and more fruitful. We ask that you be with those in the United Kingdom and countries within the European Union as the economy is being affected and so many are already in need of help. We also pray for relationships that spiral into violence. We ask for your healing presence for those in Nigeria where anti-police violence protests continue. As demonstrators have been horribly wounded in Lagos, we pray that somehow all of your dear people might be protected and comforted.

We need your help, Lord, with our relationships. We are so grateful that although our human relationships might be shaken or fall severely apart at times, we know your spirit is woven into every part of our lives.

God, as new forest fires in Colorado destroy homes and force hundreds of people to evacuate, and fires are burning in Utah, United States we ask for your comfort. We ask that peace and safety be rendered to those who are suffering from natural and man made disasters throughout the world. Shore up the essential workers, firefighters and logistics teams that work day and night in great peril. Guard those who steward and safeguard parks, wetlands, preserves, great rivers and watersheds.

God, we are in need of your constant and abiding presence as we see Covid-19 cases and deaths sweep upward. With over 40 million cases worldwide, we are weary of knowing how best to help neighbors and distant kin. As we sort through ways in the UK, France, Spain, and Italy and around the world on how to disrupt the spread of this virus, help us to bear witness that your love encourages and strengthens. Although we are in deep need of change in this world guide us to find ways to protect our dear people. We ask for your cooling breath to come upon us all. May your shining presence always be there even as we forget that “yes!” you are always alongside us.

We pray for critical watch and diplomatic action as cyber attacks by Iran have targeted countries in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as hundreds of individuals and entities in 30 additional countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Guide us as we negotiate in this changing world.

God, sometimes it is so hard to not be dismayed and anxious and so we ask that you carry our fears and lift these burdens. Lead us God as we try to be spreaders of hope, peace, and understanding as we kindle new connections and rebuild old relationships. For your infinite love we are forever grateful.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 20 August 2020

“Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust.
Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” Psalm 143:8

Dearest creator of us all,

It is to you that we lift our souls and our very beings. As we draw near to you in this very moment, we ask that you guide us, that you cover us, that you hold us in the palm of your hand and cover us with your ever present love. It is this that we need as we long for hope. Hope for a world to be more loving to one another, hope that your pure love might cover us both in our celebrations as well as in our mourning.

Let me hear of your steadfast love.

God, we pray for healing of brokenness as we grieve the loss of life, of businesses, of your natural world. We lift up the people in Iowa, USA where tornadoes have changed lives forever and have demolished the livelihood of so many. We ask for your presence to be off the coast of the Republic of Mauritius where an oil spill has damaged your beautiful creation. We pray for courage and resiliency for those facing wildfires in California, USA, especially for those in danger’s path and those who are suffering renewed trauma because of losses suffered in previous years. We ask for your healing and love in a world which is falling apart.

Let me hear of your steadfast love.

We celebrate with those of us who are celebrating the Islamic New Year. As this new year begins, we ask for hope and love to spread across all of our hearts. We are in deep need of moments to celebrate your love and your peace in this world. Help us to seek out new ways to find pieces of hope in even the smallest parts of our world.

Let me hear of your steadfast love.

God, as you continue to cover with love those who suffer from Covid-19, we now pray for those who have seemingly recovered from the virus, but may indeed experience life-long effects. As we imagine new ways of life, we pray for continual healing for our loved ones and neighbors who are suffering from these effects already. We pray for those in Spain, Italy, and Iran where there have been significantly more cases in the past days. We pray for your healing to spread out across to all of our neighbors around the world. As we grieve these effects, we also grieve the losses of jobs and pray for those in dire need of income. We pray for those in the United Kingdom where the economy is especially not well, as well as for those in so many other parts of the world where many do not know if their jobs will be their tomorrow or if they will be able to have a good meal tomorrow. We pray that nourishment of all kinds might be had.

Let me hear of your steadfast love.

God we are so grateful for our neighbors around the world to whom we can offer our love and from whom we also receive so much love. Although we may not be able to send our specific love and prayers to each one of them, we ask for you to send them love on our behalf. We are so grateful that no matter where we go or what we do, we can walk knowing that we have your love on our backs and hope in our pockets. Be with our neighbors, Lord, and rekindle in us the need to come closer together even as we safely stay apart.

Let me hear of your steadfast love.

Amen.

World News in Prayer – August 6, 2020

Dear Lord, help us to hear these voices.

I pray today that my knees and back hold up. I pray that my mom and children are ok in our two-bedroom apartment while I work at a hotel and clean 15 rooms each day. I pray that my paycheck will be enough, that my car holds up, that someone cares about me enough to say “hello” to give a smile.

There are approximately 926,960 maids and housekeeping cleaners in the U.S. Sometimes cleaners are assigned 30 rooms in a day.

Across the barrier of our indifference awaken us to the other, help us to understand the burdens they carry, oh Christ, by your grace. May we understand the equity built into a living wage, the costs of health care and child care, housing and food, transportation, and school supplies.

I was a child soldier in Liberia, but first I was a schoolboy. I still pray for my grandparents. The soldiers arrived and took me away. I was taught to fight. Smoking drugs would energize us. The war is over, long over and many of us are trying to get off of drugs. I pray that I can leave this sad life. What price must I pay for my country’s war. I pray that I am not abandoned and shunned. I pray that God will protect me and hear my voice.

The UN investigates and reports on child soldiers. The top-ranking countries are Afghanistan, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. Children as young as eight are used as combatants, guards, human shields, porters, messengers, spies, cooks, and/or for sexual purposes. Girl soldiers are often used as “wives” and sexually abused by their commanders and other soldiers. Iraq’s Kurdish and Yezidi children were recruited. Myanmar children are forcibly recruited into the National Army. In Nigeria girls, ages 7 and 8 were used as suicide bombers. In Somalia over 900 children were recruited and posted at checkpoints. Two factions in South Sudan have taken over 17,000 children. In Syria, warring sides have recruited children as young as seven, half are under age 15. They have been exploited in propaganda videos. In Yemen, where we pray that those suffering from starvation will be cared for, boys are recruited to fight on all sides.

Across the world where these horrendous injustices continue against the most vulnerable, their childhood swept away, torn from their families, oh Christ by your grace we call out against war and these atrocities. Help us to take right action. Help us to speak out against militarization. We pray for those suffering and the loss to their families.

Will my land flood and be silted over taking away our livelihood? I feel there is nothing to do but wait and watch. I pray we will be safe and not lose everything. The wind is picking up and the rain has already been falling.

River flooding in population-dense countries includes India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Cambodia.

Oh, Christ in your mercy, protect these countries from what seems to be inevitable flooding and a cycle of loss and destitution. We pray for those in harm’s way around the world. Give us the ability to work together to share resources and contribute knowledge to reduce this suffering. Be with the emergency transport, the health care workers, the utility crews, the engineers, and their teams as they design and plan and understand the rivers that bring life and death.

We are the over 1,700 health care workers who have died of COVID 19. We did our work, loved our work, trained many years, endured long hours, cried and spoke out and then we too became sick. We were not indifferent or complacent. We pray this pandemic will end that the billions of people under this veil of suffering will find comfort that leaders will come together in reason and generosity of heart and mind.

Medscape publishes the names of workers around the world. We name these few in remembrance of so many. Onyenachi Obasi, 51 Nurse, National Health Service, Barking and Dagenham, London, England. Morteza Vojdan, age unknown, General Practitioner, Mashhad, Iran. Patricia Wilke, 63, Pharmacist, Winslow, Arizona. Valeriu Pripa, 59, Head of Radiological Imaging Department, Chisinau, Moldova. Rosalinda “Rose” Pulido, 46, Oncologist, San Juan de Dios Hospital, Pasay City Philippines. Freddy Pow Hing, 59, Interventional Cardiologist, Hospital IESS Duran, Duran, Ecuador. Anonymous, 62, Organ Transplantation, Wuhan, China. Oh Christ, in your compassion and mercy give us the will to endure, care, and remember.

We’re still in shock; we’re still refusing to believe that something happened. We still think it’s like a dream or something. It was terrifying. It was horrible.

Residents of Beruit, Lebanon are reeling after an explosion of ammonium nitrate leveled the port injuring at least 50,00 people and leaving at least 137 dead. Residents have been working together to clear the rubble and investigations seeking to determine responsibility are underway as residents grieve and begin to rebuild from the devastation.

I am a tree, a forest, a bird, a butterfly, a bumblebee and a bat I have no human voice, my habitat is shrinking and yet I cling to beautiful nature. Hear my song, the wind moving in the fir, the singing wetland, the happy buzz and light wings. Receive our offerings.

Oh Lord, we have trespassed on our own earth, we have stolen and killed, sprayed and paved over, and cut down without thought to 7 generations. Forgive us. Approximately 30,000 species per year — about three per hour — are being driven to extinction. Where is our mindfulness? Nearly 80 percent of species diversity of our world is destroyed because of habitat loss — approximately 5,760 acres per day or 240 acres per hour. Christ in your mercy awaken us to our stewardship. Help us to live and step lightly.

Oh Lord, call us to your table of life. Remind us of the mighty work we need to do to care for each and all. Rest us at night and renew us for this day that is before us.

Amen.

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 12th March 2020

Every little thing is sent for something, and in that thing there should be happiness and the power to make happy. Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the

Grandfathers of the World. Black Elk, (1863-1950)

Oh God, we read these words from a holy man who lived not so long ago. We have heard in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus’s words to his disciples of certain strength in the meek. We are reminded of his teachings to care for the poor and the least or marginalized. We remember that Jesus came humbly and joyfully into Jerusalem on a donkey with her colt – not the horse a symbol of war.

The ways and acts of peace are tender. They seem fleeting and small. Help us like the very grasses to act with hearts shining toward each other. As we turn to each other we ask that we may we see the other. Help us to pass the peace and love you have offered us through your son Jesus Christ.

We are grateful for the communication systems that connect each country through reporting and analyzing data to understand the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is on our minds night and day.

We are grateful for the common sense public health measures and call to action of simple hand washing not hand wringing.

We pause in our hearts. We grieve for the families whose elders have been swept away by the virus. Replace fear during increasing lockdowns with focus and quiet action. Help us in unforeseen ways to grow in our understanding of our connectedness. Safeguard the emergency and health care teams and families exposed across the continents. We name them out loud thinking of the peoples in locked down regions…knowing the list will grow.

Africa – Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa

Americas – Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,

Guadalupe, Mexico, United States

Eastern Mediterranean – Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates

Europe – Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Herzegovina, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia (23%), San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Southeast Asia – Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand

Western Pacific – Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, North Korea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia (77%), Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam

In celebration of International Women’s Day this past Sunday there comes singing, clapping and dancing, tears and laughter. Help us to receive the wisdom from indigenous women of the Ecuadorian Tribal Nations of Kofan, Siona, Siekopai and Waorani peoples as we hear their voices: “We are at the forefront of our peoples’ struggles and victories against the exploitation of our natural resources of extractive industries. From monitoring our territories and confronting emerging invasions to leading sustainable economic alternatives to resource extraction and shaping a vision for the education of our children and grandchildren, we are creating solutions for the long-term protection of a forest we all depend upon for life. And now, we are also training to become journalists and filmmakers in order to share our stories and struggles from a female perspective.” Lord we ask you to amplify their words: “We come with love and peace, we, women from four indigenous nations of the Western Amazon in Ecuador, are fighting against the threats to our forest.”

We end this weeks prayers for the hungry – the over 820 million people who have suffered from hunger in 2018, the greatest number since 2010 as reported by the World Meteorological Organization released this past Wednesday.

We ask for your mercy in these times.

Increase our compassion.

Sustain us in doing your will.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thurs. January 16, 2020

Dear Friends in Prayer,

Did you ever have one of those sleepless nights? When, after three hours of perfectly wonderful, refreshing sleep, you are suddenly awake, wide awake, for no apparent reason? And when, despite watching a couple of shows on your Kindle Fire (or whatever you resort to during wakeful hours), your mind is still filled with the fires in Australia…. the opioid crisis… the volcanoes erupting in the Philippines and Mexico…. the families being separated at the border between the U.S. and Mexico…. the refugees being rejected from more countries than we can count…. hungry, homeless people… hard-working families, struggling to pay their monthly bills… people with pre-existing health conditions, unable to pay their medical bills… police and military people and first responders committing suicide because of what they have seen and heard and done… children living day-to-day with food insecurity… wars and threats of war in Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen and other countries… teenagers being bullied by someone who is telling them they are not enough…. people fleeing gang violence in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras… poor women seeking family planning advice and unable to find it because clinics are being closed… preschoolers with no one to read to them because everyone in their family is working so hard just to stay above water, or never had a chance to learn to read themselves… LGBTQ teens being rejected by their families for being who they are… churches whose doors are narrow and their welcome conditional…. extremist religions like the “Christian” sect in Panama that killed seven indigenous persons in a ritual intended to force them to “repent their sins”… the oceans being polluted with our discarded plastics…. the discovery that the million+ common murres (seabirds) that died between 2015 and 2016 probably were killed by a blob of hot water in the Pacific Ocean (what will global warming do to our furred and finned and feathered friends?)…. those who continue to deny climate change, in spite of the increasing evidence and the warnings of environmental scientists… the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump…. Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to wrest control from the Russian government and turn the country into a dictatorship… the 2020 elections which will determine the paths of our countries for years to come….

Did you ever have one of those nights when every attempt at prayer seems to fall on empty ears…. when God seems far away and you feel very alone? And when you utter the Serenity Prayer for the tenth time, and find that your heart and mind are settling in, and you finally feel bathed in, encompassed by God’s grace, and sleep feels possible once again?

If you have, dear friend, know you are not alone…. That the writer of this week’s prayers, and all who pray them, and many other wayfaring pilgrims have been and are with you in the darkness, holding out a trembling hand to clasp yours, and together, we’ll make it through the night, God-in-flesh for each other.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – January 9, 2020

Dear God,

While we know you hold onto us, and we know that you are there during every moment of our lives, we also live with so much fear. Fear for the planet, fear for all people around the world, fear for our friends and family, fear for the places we live, and fear for our own lives. There is so much to be afraid of and yet we still know that you are here with us. We ask for your presence to wash over us now.