Syria

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 2, 2020

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.
James 1:17

Oh Lord, there are many things that concern us and call us to prayer.

We open our hearts to you in gratitude and wonder.

We pray for those who rage and are quick to anger, for those who seem to be eaten up by intolerance. We pray for those who express their contempt and fury in violence to themselves and others. We grieve at those who have lost their lives to aggression due to fighting, war, criminal violence, and terrorism. We call out the names of nations so rife with conflict, so often in the news — Afghanistan, Mexico, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, South Sudan, India, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Pakistan, and the Philippines. We call out the nations that make the weapons of war that fuel decades-long conflict and destruction: US, Russia, France, Germany, Spain, South Korea, China, the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, and the Netherlands and many more. Help us to see beyond the headlines to stand up for the women and children, the families, the victims, those starving and displaced. We call out for your mercy. Safeguard the journalists who bring the news, relate the stories of the imprisoned, the refugee, those made invisible by war, bigotry, and hatred. Safeguard the whistleblowers. Sustain us as we examine our own hearts, shed our own contempt and learn the practice of peacemaking in our homes and communities.

This season can be a time of anxiety as well as anticipation. We can sense tension and disharmony instead of peace. Many feel depression and despair instead of wellbeing and belonging. Help us to understand and accept those who suffer in mind, body, and spirit. They may be close or far away. Help us to learn compassion and to practice generosity, consideration, kindness and mutual regard. We pray for those who are without homes, who are estranged from their families who feel alone and isolated. May we grow in our practice of charity and give beyond counting. Guide each of us to do the right thing in our own special way for the need is great.

As the past year turns into this new decade in the tumultuous millennium help us to shed despair and the sense of heaviness that the need is unending and insurmountable. Sustain us with the words of healing. May we be reminded that around the world literacy is increasing, childhood deaths are declining and people are being lifted out of deep poverty as never before known.

May the hope born in Advent light the way through the minutes, hours, days and months to come.

May your love-come-down-among-us strengthen and steady our steps, telling us that we are not alone.

Amen.

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 26th December 2019

As we approach the end of another year, we tend to reflect and look back over the last year or decade but unless this informs our choices and behaviours going forward it is in danger of being an empty and futile activity. So many have expressed frustration, anger or disconnectedness with the political process in so many countries for a variety of reasons but there is an upsurge in an expressed awareness of our shared humanity and planet and the need to protect this for our future survival.

Lord God, hear us and guide us to open our hearts and minds to follow you rather than the latest demagogue or social media influencer.

In the Incarnation, you came as a helpless baby, in an occupied country, to a skilled artisan and his fiancée, not even married. The family became refugees to save your life. No palace or big country pile, no soft, cushy number but a life of graft and community, growing and learning; but it had purpose, dignity, time spent building a relationship with you, love and service. Galilee was not a high status and sought out part of the country, but in the difficulties and challenges Jesus grew in years, knowledge and understanding. Lord, more people in the world today experience similar circumstances than the much vaunted and sought-after high income, high consumption, cushioned life of the powerful and elites.

Lord God, forgive us when we fail to recognise and value the dignity and humanity of all who share our small planet. So easily anything could happen to any of us, if not already done so.

: those who are homeless.

: those living with physical or mental illness or addictions.

: those struggling to make ends meet and even put food on the table, clothes on their backs, heating and lighting, clean water and sanitation, education for their children, health care and safety from violence. We name among them those in Yemen, the refugees and stateless in Europe, Mexico, the Asian sub-continent.

: our neighbors, when often their distress is hidden behind closed doors

: those who slip through the safety nets (where they exist) for those in need,

: those out of work and finding jobs hard to find especially ones which provide regular income and a sense of worth and dignity; we name those in Iraq freed from ISIS but feeling abandoned by the corruption endemic in their government systems relying on charitable micro start-ups.

: those facing economic and natural disasters. Among them those in Australia, the US, the Philippines, Greenland, Vanuatu and other low-lying countries in Micronesia.

: those suffering injustice and living in fear or war; including Chile, Yemen, Syria, and Myanmar

: the seemingly world-wide endemic of violence against women and girls: we give thanks for those highlighting this and struggling to make changes often at great personal danger and cost in India, France, Spain, and so many other countries.

: those in power who seek self-aggrandisement at the expense of belittling and dehumanising others who generally have less access to the megaphone of the media.

We give thanks for the courage and endurance of those politicians, lawyers, community advocates and others of faith and none shining the light of truth challenging these life-sapping deceits. We name among others those in China, Hong Kong, Russia, Venezuela, the UK, the US, Mexico.

Lord God, we pray that the way of the Prince of Peace may prevail. This newborn babe, grew into the Servant King living daily in his actions and attitudes the equal worth and vulnerabilities of all people springing from a love for all, and all your creation.

We give thanks for the many who share their time, energy, gifts and skills in enabling others to survive and hopefully start to achieve their God-given potential.

May the hope brought by the Incarnation inspire us.

May the joy of the new-life witnessed by so many, give us optimism and the challenge of a new way of living the future.

In the words of one of the verses of the Austrian carol, “Still, still, still”,

“Love, love, love. No greater love than his;
While ‘Christ the Lord’ the angels name him,
We with fervent hearts acclaim him.
Love, love, love. No greater love than his.”

AMEN

World News This Week in Prayer – Thurs., October 17, 2019

Be gentle with us, O Lover of Souls.
Be gentle with us, for surely in this fractured and fracturing world,
that above all is what we need:
To (re)learn to be gentle with ourselves.
To be gentle with each other.
To be gentle with our planet.

Be gentle with those – especially with those – who don’t seem to have a gentle bone in their bodies.
Be gentle with the United States, for abandoning their Kurdish allies; with the Turkish forces attacking the Kurds; with the country of Syria in the middle.
Be gentle with the owners of the Bangladesh clothing factory under investigation for abusing their workers.
Be gentle with the leaders of Venezuela, which just won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, despite their country’s own horrendous human rights violations.

Be gentle with those whom we cannot forgive.
Be gentle with the South Korean mastermind of the massive “dark web” child pornography marketplace who was arrested this week, along with 337 users of the site from 11 countries.
Be gentle with all who bully and abuse and terrorize, in the schoolyards, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our world.

Gentle them, Beloved, as you would gentle a wild horse.
As you would coax love from the strong muscles and striking hooves of the fearful and ranging stallion.

Be gentle with all who hurt, or weep, or mourn, or fear.
Be gentle with the survivors of Typhoon Hagibis in Japan.
Be gentle with those searching for survivors in the collapsed apartment building in Brazil.
Be gentle with the tens of thousands of migrants applying for asylum in Mexico, now that it appears that the U.S. will no longer be a possible place of refuge for them.

Wrap them in the tenderest love, Beloved, as you would a flurry of newborn kittens.
As you would make a nest of the softest blankets, in which to grow and heal and thrive.

Be gentle with our fragile Earth.
Be gentle with the students in Gambia protesting climate change, because one day, “my city Banjul could end up under water.”
Be gentle with Lebanon, facing the worst wildfires in decades.
Be gentle with Australia, where a growing drought is stirred up a dust storm so thick that day seemed to turn to night.
Be gentle with the lives we have built, with the lives we do not know how to sustain.

Help us to walk gently in our lands, in our lives.
As gently as a drop of dew on a morning flower.

Be gentle with us, O Lover of Souls.
But, oh, we do not need to ask.
For you are our Gentleness and our Beloved.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, October 10, 2019

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But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
-Isaiah 43:1b (NRSV)

Parent of us all,

You have created us.

You are with us, Lord, even in some of the most distressing and humiliating moments of our lives. We pray for all of those around the world who are not being treated as they should be. Be with your people in Hong Kong who are being terribly hurt as they are trying to voice what they feel. Comfort and strengthen the people of Iraq, where well over 100 protesters have been killed, and where services were cancelled last Sunday at St George’s in Baghdad because of the violence. We pray for those who have experienced power outages in California, USA, leaving many without lights and in fear of more fires. We ask that you be with those at the Turkey and Syrian border who are being hurt by airstrikes and artillery fire as your children try to seek safety. May you be with all of your dear people whom you created in your image.

You have formed us.

We celebrate the minds of your people who are doing incredible things to transform your world and make it a place worth living. We give thanks for the Nobel Prize winners, for their insights, discoveries, and innovations, and for the upcoming generations whom they inspire. We yearn for a better existence.

You have redeemed us.

We ask that you be with those who celebrated Yom Kippur this past week. As your children fast and study your Word, may you remind all people to repent of the things we have done badly or inadequately, which should be done better in this next year. We are so grateful that you forgive us even though we do not deserve it.

You have called us.

You have called us and yet we so often fall short of what you want us to do. Help us to heed your call and to act as you choose for each of us to act. While we try our best, so often we fall short. Please help our world to learn how we might better follow you and act according to your will. Stop those who are engaging in horrendous acts toward others – lead them to act as you call us. May you teach us how to stand against hate, violence, and any action which does not reveal your love. Help us to take stands against gun violence, such as the most recent shooting in Kansas, USA. We remember the 6000 people in Venezuela who have died since January 2018, most of them probably as a result of extrajudicial executions. We ask for mercy, forgiveness and compassion to be shown by those in power throughout the world.

We are yours.

Most of all, Lord, help us to remember that we are yours. No matter where we go or what we do, remind us that we belong. Even when others hate us, or do not share the love of our neighbor that we do, may you remind us that we belong to you. Even when it seems that there is no place for us and no place for those we love, we will always belong to you. Continually remind us, God, that there is nothing and no person in this world who can separate us from your love, for we are infinitely yours and in that alone, we can find our rest.

Amen.

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 19th September 2019

There is a voice ringing throughout the universe; throughout all space and time; seeking to reach our ears, to touch our hearts and souls.

Gracious God, help us to listen for Your voice, calming and clear, throughout the chaos of our frenzied lives, the voices in our heads, and the roaring sounds all around us. Help us to tune into you as we pray for our world.

Holy One, we listen for Your guidance in healing your world. We pray for resolution of political, economic and social paralysis and uncertainty affecting the UK and Europe over Brexit. We pray for the people of the Bahamas, who have a long road of recovery ahead after Hurricane Dorian turned their world upside down and the need for help seems endless. We also lift our hearts in prayer for Bermuda, where Hurricane Humberto knocked out the power for about 80% of the island.

We pray for all the places in the world that are burning, including Brazil and Bolivia, and Indonesia. We pray that we are given ears to hear the cries of your children, including those across the Globe who have organized the Climate Strike this Friday, September 20th..

Loving One, we listen for Your tranquility when the clamor of gun violence and missiles so often ring in our heads, even days, months, and years after we hear of them. We pray for change in the United States, where gun violence is so prevalent, particularly after the Sandy Hook Promise commercial has been released and gaining so much attention, seven years after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.

We pray for the Middle East, especially since the Saudi Arabia oil attacks, that they may experience healing rather than rage. We cry with those grieving in Afghanistan following the attacks by the Taliban yet again on civilians and now a hospital replicating the murderous attacks on hospitals in Syria. We pray for the protection and provisions for all seeking to help the wounded and vulnerable.

Help us tune into Your voice, O God, that we may live lives of true discipleship and carry out Your will to bring peace to this tumultuous world around us. Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, August 8, 2019

‘Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him on those who hope in his steadfast love..’ ~ Ps 33:18

‘Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen….. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.’ ~ Hebrews 11:1 and 8

God beyond all definition, in our finite humanity we like to pin everything down, delude ourselves into thinking we are in control, we claim to be logical and strain to understand all that is and all we experience. We forget too often that all things come from you, and of your own do we give you. You are the creator of all life and all that makes our planet and universe.

God of wonder and power: give us the humility to be open to your presence in all its forms.

This world is a beautiful place, yet we humans too often make it fearful, threatening, damaged and damaging for each other and all the creatures and environments you have given us. We recall the devastation following fires, droughts and floods in the Arctic, Zimbabwe, USA, various parts of Europe, India, and Asia. We give thanks for the scientists coming together to warn world leaders, and all of us, of the calamitous environmental changes wrought by our stripping the planet of resources needed to combat climate change and absorb the carbon contributing to this. May we learn how to nurture and live in harmony with nature, taking only what is essential to life, not our greed.

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

As warring madness and violence escalates, even by the young and towards the young, and all who are deemed to be vulnerable and ‘other’, help us to stand up to the bullying tactics in language, attitude and deeds in all walks of life and by leaders as well as people like ourselves. We remember all those killed and grieving through acts of violence, in El Paso, TX, and Dayton, Ohio, USA, in Kabul, Afghanistan, in Syria, in Cape Town, South Africa, and so many other countries around the globe.

God, draw near and comfort those who grieve, care for those wounded. Strengthen and encourage those trying to bring peace to our communities and neighborhoods. We give thanks for all those of good heart and love, and those of faith or none who nevertheless live a life of love and peace and reconciliation in all that they do and are.

Lord hear us, and answer our prayers.

We remember those political representatives throughout the world, their families and staff being threatened because of their role in serving their communities. We hear of threats against Members of Parliament in the UK, leaders in the US, in Russia, Australia, Latvia. Sadly the list is endless. Governments too often incite this through false propaganda on social media. May we learn to engage our brains before spreading rumors and gossip which poison minds and relationships.

Lord hear us, and answer our prayers..

We remember the parents in Russia being threatened with having their children removed from their care – just for participating in peaceful protests allowed under the 1993 Russian Constitution. We also remember the illegal change in the status of Kashmir by India and the continued fighting and tension between them and Pakistan.

Heavenly Father, you take the long-term approach, while so many in politics go for the short-term option, not thinking out the possible consequences of their words and actions.

Mothering God, you gave us life. Teach us to value it in all whom we meet and all that we seek to do. May this be incorporated into all our institutions and goals.

Lord hear us, and answer our prayers.

In the words of Martin Luther King, ‘all that it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing.’ May this truth enter our beings. Forgive us when we are judgmental and full of unrighteous belief that we are right and others have to change to be like us. Instead let each one of us change, to be like you and as revealed especially to us in the incarnate Christ.

Purify our hearts, and by your Holy Spirit, transform us into people of love as you are Love. 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. You God are our Rock, our Life and everlasting love. AMEN

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, May 2, 2019

This week’s prayers begin with music. Music composed in the late 18th century by an Austrian composer, using an ancient Latin text. Music sung, this past Sunday, by a touring Russian ensemble, at the beginning of worship in an Episcopal church in California, U.S.

But perhaps a bit of background is in order. The members of the World in Prayer team who take turns writing the prayers come from two continents, and half a dozen different denominations. And I, the writer for this week – my week began with music. The St. Petersburg Men’s Ensemble had performed at our church last Saturday. And when we booked the performance, they had asked – asked! – if it would be ok if they also sang during worship Sunday morning, so that in that way they could celebrate their Easter. (Don’t worry if you’re a bit confused – in the Eastern Orthodox churches, Easter occurs the Sunday after Easter in churches that follow the Western Christian calendar.) As they sang Mozart’s Ave Verdum Corpus, I was transported…into a place where the differences between us in language, culture, nationality, politics all fell away. Where even the words of the text didn’t matter. Where the music itself caught us up into a place so very near to God…

And I thought, “If only we could recognize every stranger as the bearer of amazing gifts.”

Listen.
And then let’s pray.

Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, performed by the St. Petersburg Men’s Ensemble on their “Live in Newport” DVD. Copyright 2014. Reproduced with permission. (If you have difficulty viewing the embedded video, you can also access the recording by going to https://youtu.be/EblcqRqLV0Q )

Holy One, give us eyes to see every approaching stranger as one bearing amazing gifts.

As United States President Donald Trump proposes charging a fee to those seeking asylum in the US,
As practical, along-the-way support dries up for those in the latest migrant caravan crossing Mexico,
As Pope Francis donates $500,000 to the migrant caravan,
As the number of migrants and refugees reaching Europe – Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta and Cyprus – by sea so far this year exceeds 12,000,
As the United Nations warns of a worsening humanitarian situation facing civilians across northwest Syria, with rising casualties, and “waves of displacement” due to intensifying conflict,

Give us eyes to see past fear and exhaustion, past seemingly-overwhelming numbers and unending needs.
Give us eyes to see the beauty that they bring.
Give us eyes to see the hidden, extraordinary gifts each stranger has to offer.

Risen One, give us ears to hear the music that unites us.

As Israel paused this week to for the annual remembrance honoring victims of the Holocaust,
As a young man spouting Christian hatred toward Jews attacked a United States synagogue,
As an attack on a Protestant church in Burkina Faso kills six,
and 40 Christians were reportedly killed in Nigeria on Easter,

Give us ears to hear beyond the burgeoning hatred and fomented distrust.
Give us ears to hear past religious divisions.
Give us ears to hear that all faiths that proclaim love, sing the song of the One God who draws us.

Beloved One, give us wisdom to succor every endangered being.

As Cyclone Fani makes landfall on the Eastern coast of India, where nearly 1,000,000 people were evacuated yesterday,
As the same cyclone endangers hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees still living in tents in Bangladesh, with no place to go and no resources to get there,
As Mozambique and Comoro struggle through the continuing downpours to try to begin recovery from the two devastating cyclones that hit there in the past six weeks,
As we learn that what was once the second largest breeding colony of Emperor penguins in Antarctica has completely disappeared due to climate change,
and the United Kingdom Parliament declares a climate change emergency earlier this week,

Give us wisdom to hold out our hands to all in danger.
Give us wisdom to share our knowledge.
Give us wisdom to heal our aching world.

Holy One, so fill us with the music of the spheres, that we can do nothing else than joyously sing the song of your unending love.
Amen.

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

God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” –Genesis 1:29-30

What my grandparents did, we are doing now, not leaving footprints. You westerners must see what we are. We came to ask you to respect our culture. We came to ask you to come to our territory, if you respect us you will come. We do not want war as our ancestors did; we only want to be heard. We want peace, compassion and understanding. – Excerpt of Waorani women’s song in a courthouse in Ecuador to halt illegal oil drilling on their forested lands.

OH, God, our creator, you are listening to singing in this world. You hear crying and our pleas as well. You know our tears and feel our deep suffering. We call for your mercy on the many horrors of war, famine, displacement, imprisonment and inequality.

The movement of the wind across dry lands that thirst also carries Spirit. Nourish and protect the people of North Korea where one-third of the rice paddies have dried up in a 100-year drought. Give them hope. Call us to action in Puerto Rico where fresh water access is jeopardized and being rationed and in India where its population of 1.3 billion people will endure extreme water stress as ground water moisture is not being replenished. Awaken us to the drought in Sao Paulo, Brazil as people may be forced to flee, as de-forestation of the Amazon and long-term pollution of water leaves little to drink. Help us to discern a way through this global crisis. Help us to hear the words of our elders, teachers and wise-ones.

The movement of people where violence and economic deprivation require all manner of assistance. Holy Spirit dwell among the humanitarian partners receiving over 4.9 million people of which over 1 million are children as they are fleeing Venezuela coming to Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago. We call for your mercies especially for unaccompanied children, for pregnant and nursing mothers. We pray that communities accept the foreigner, the stranger, the homeless and hungry. May loving acts transcend policies of closed borders.

The flight of people from the floods from Cyclone Idai and the extreme damage it has wrought is overwhelming. Sustain those providing humanitarian aid for the hundreds of thousands of people in the port of Beira, Mozambique as contaminated water spreads cholera. Sustain the Ministry of Health as infrastructure is severely disrupted. Bring an end to suffering, calm the anxious, the lost, the grieving, those that feel all hope is gone. Shelter the homeless of Zimbabwe and comfort the suffering of Malawi as the waters recede and the dead are grieved.

We pray for the Rohingya peoples fleeing Myanmar, many now forced by human trafficking cartels into cages in makeshift prisons in Malaysia and Thailand. Bring justice to these places and times, shield the suffering captives from further harm. We learn of the rapid rise in the building of prisons in China where over one million Muslims are thought to be imprisoned in the guise of re-education. Oh how troubled and in need of your mercy are we as a global community.

Prayers this day and into the night are like the lights that come on at evening, as darkness descends around the world. Bright of day clarity shifts to soft silhouettes as we tire, help up us to set down our burdens and worries, to give them to your powerful ways. May we remember to be grateful for what is and what is not, Oh, Lord, Father, Mother…Great One, Protector of all.

Help us to know you in our darkest nights and in the blinding glare of midday. We pray for the victims of genocide in Syria where 500,000 are dead and where the UN has documented evidence of mass killings and the targeting of Syrian children by its own government for brutal torture and slaughter. We pray too for the people of Libya where dozens, including civilians have died and nearly two hundred wounded in recent days in rebel fighting in the capital Tripoli. So much anguish and misery, deep unendurable loss, and yet we find our way forward with prayers for reconciliation and peace. We honor the 800,000 dead remembering the violence of Rwanda twenty-five years later. As nations stood by, terror and genocide born out of hate speech rolled over the land. We grieve in this world of sorrow. Teach us to love, to forgive. We call upon you, Oh Lord; to bless our mouths with words of kindness, give our hands energy for healing and tenderness. Console the orphan and widowed. Bring wisdom to our leaders such that these atrocities do not happen. Open our eyes to the cost of anger, fear and hatred.

In our grasping and avoiding of Your Will, remind us that indeed Your Work is to be done here on this earth as in the heavens. May we hear in this moment, in this Lenten season your eternal call to us to love as Christ loved us, as he taught us to turn the other cheek, to befriend the widow, visit the prisoner and cherish our children. Awaken us to what it means to receive Living Water. Deepen our will to serve and love one another. Amen.