World in Prayer

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, July 2, 2020

The World in Prayer team member who wrote this week’s prayers has spent the past 6 weeks catching, taming, and finding homes for a litter of feral kittens. It has, she says, definitely affected how she understands God, and how she prays for the world. “You’ll have to forgive me,” she writes, “if these prayers are rather – well – kitten-shaped.”

I. Courtship. They appeared in my yard, the terrified but oh-so-proud young mama cat, and her four just-starting-to-explore adorable kittens. Me, I spent long hours sitting absolutely still. Marveling. Waiting. For them to get used to my scent. For them to get used to my presence. For them to get used to my voice.

And I thought with awe – and wonder – and thanksgiving – about God. Our God, who loves us with such patient adoration. Waiting, for us to notice God with us. Waiting for us to abandon fear, for curiosity. Waiting for us to dare to approach. Waiting for us to dare to be loved.

Holy and loving God, we adore you and we praise you, because you love with infinite patience even those that the world despises, ignores, or rejects:

  • The Oromo – the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, where unrest has spread after the death and funeral of 34-year-old singer Hachalu Hundessa. His songs advocating their rights have become anthems in a wave of protests in that country.
  • More than 40,000 impoverished people have been evicted from their homes since March in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, primarily in communities already displaced by violence, droughts, or floods.
  • Strawberry pickers brought from Morocco to Spain are not considered essential workers, and are not being provided even the most basic hygiene needed to protect them against the new coronavirus.
  • Sex workers in Thailand (more than 125,000 of them, from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam), as well as in Bangladesh (an estimated 100,000) – have been jobless and facing abuse from their dissatisfied brokers since the coronavirus pandemic forced bars and other entertainment venues to close. For many, this illegal work is the only way they can survive and provide for their children.
  • According to the United Nations, the pandemic is reversing progress on ending child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). An additional 13 million girls could be married off and 2 million more could undergo FGM in the next decade, beyond what would have been expected.
  • Indigenous Amazon communities in Brazil, who have no immunity to external diseases and whose communal lifestyle rules out social distancing – and who are not receiving adequate help during the pandemic from the Brazilian government.

II. Trapping. I put out food. Each day, moving a little bit closer. Each day, with breath held, waiting for them to come eat. Then the food went into the cat carrier, and if they wanted it, they had to go inside. And then one day, while they were eating, I gently shut the door, and brought them inside my house.

And I prayed…for all who don’t know if a sweet enticement will turn out to be a trap or an opening to a world of joy. For all who are trapped. For all who are being freed. For all who hold open doors to new life.

Holy and gracious God, whose will it is always to bless, stretch out your protecting arms over:

  • Hong Kong, as China’s new “national security law” for Hong Kong takes effect, criminalizing what had been protected speech (i.e., the right to criticize the Chinese government), and allowing mainland Chinese security personnel to legally operate in Hong Kong with impunity.
  • The dead, the missing, and the grieving after a landslide at a jade mining site in northern Myanmar killed at least 162.
  • The United States, where there are way too many people who believe their right not to wear masks or take other public health precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is more important than protecting one another; and many others who cannot understand that the best way to have a healthy economy is to have healthy population.
  • Scientists in Canada, South Africa, and Zimbabwe who are helping Botswana try to determine the cause of the “completely unprecedented” deaths of more than 350 elephants since May

III. Delight. As I had known they would, the kittens came to trust. They learned to play, to pounce, to wrestle. They discovered that being petted was Very Good, Very Very Good. The legs grew longer, and the purrs grew stronger, and my arms or my lap were usually filled with a cuddle puddle. They learned to ask – often way too loudly, and way too early in the morning – for the food and loving they craved.

And I heard God’s prayer for us: What would this world be like, if we could hold each other in patient love? If we could trust, without pushing, that just loving and waiting in love were enough to transform the world? What if we could love enough to truly hear one another, and to answer – even if it’s momentarily inconvenient – with infinitely deep love?

Holy and delighted God, smile with us in pleasure, as the restorative power of the Black Lives Matter movement spreads across the world:

  • In France, where the global anti-racism protests led the armed forces ministry to provide local authorities with a guide to 100 Africans who fought for France in World War II, so that streets may be named after them. Presenting the list, Junior Defense Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said, “the names, faces, lives of these African heroes must become part of our lives as free citizens, because without them we would not be free.”
  • In the United Kingdom,where the Lloyd’s of London insurance market apologized for its “shameful” role in the 18th and 19th Century Atlantic slave trade, and pledged to fund opportunities for Black and ethnic minority people.
  • In Nigeria, where leaders of the Igbo people hope the BLM movement will inspire similar change for their people, many of whom are the descendants of slaves and still face significant discrimination.

IV. Setting free. The time came. I wish I could have kept them all. I wish I could have kept that wild, but maybe-just-beginning-to-trust mama cat, and taught her how to be loved. I fell in love with the kittens, and wished they could have stayed with me forever. But they were ready. Feral mama, still very wary, was spayed and went to live on a friend’s ranch, where she will be cherished and invited into as much love as she can accept. The kittens were chosen with love, and this weekend will be on their way to wonderful families.

And I heard again God’s prayer for us: that incredible, deep, wanting all to be well with us. With every single one of us. With every single fiber of this planet, of this universe. With every single nation. Filling us with love…and then sending us forth, in love, to be love.

Holy and amazing God, rejoice with us at every tiny sign that your love is at work in the world, that the Kingdom of God is indeed at hand:

  • From Kenya to Tanzania, Ethiopia to Malawi, Liberia to South Africa, tens of thousands of ordinary African women battle Covid-19 in their communities. Recruited and trained by governments and charities, the unsung army of mostly female and mostly unpaid community health workers are going door to door in remote villages and urban slums, talking about the virus, showing residents how to wash hands or don a mask, patiently answering their questions. Regardless of the risk to themselves. They do it in love.

And God said, go forth in love, to be love.
Amen.

 

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 25 June 2020

(Many thanks to Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor/author, Nadia Bolz-Weber, for some of the prayer petitions.)

God who is called by many names, God of this earth and all its peoples, today we are crying out, how long, O Lord?

How long until we can touch our parents and beloved elders? (even as we thank you for each day we have with them.)

How long until we can have things on our calendar to look forward to that don’t involve staring at a computer? (even as we thank you for the abundance of celebrations and movies and live music and meals with friends that we have been granted up until a few months ago….even as we thank you for the gift which electronics can be to us.)

How long until we can gather together again to sing your praise? (even as we thank you for calling an assembly in the streets to overturn the tables of injustice and racism.)

How long until the dying ceases, the brutality ends, the anxiety abates?

How long until justice rains down like waters?

How long, O Lord?

How long until the coronavirus pandemic stops holding our lives and our world in the thrall of fear? (even as we are aware of the increasing numbers of both cases and deaths in Brazil, Mexico, India, Pakistan, and the United States.)

How long for the recovery of the people in six states in southern Mexico, hit by an earthquake this week, killing six people, and destroying many buildings? (even as we are grateful that the government’s alert system worked well, saving many more lives.)

How long until our LGBTQIA siblings in sub-Saharan Africa are free from criminal prosecution for their same-sex loving relationships? (even as the members of the lower house of parliament in Gabon have voted for decriminalization, a significant first step.)

How long until people dealing with cancer in Zimbabwe can get proper treatment, as the health care system has been compromised by the corruption of the health minister? (even as health care workers are making every effort to assist the sick and suffering.)

How long until the massive plume of dust from the Sahara Desert reaches the southeastern United States, bringing with it the possibility of multiple respiratory problems and straining an already-stressed health care system? (even as awareness is raised through technology and the efforts of the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)

How long until the wildfires in Arizona, United States, which have forced the evacuation of many residents, are brought under control? (even as we give thanks for the firefighters and first responders  working there.)

How Long, O Lord?

We’re not asking for a date. We’re asking for the faith that a date will come.

Amen.

World News in Prayer – Thursday, 18 June, 2020

What does the Lord ask of us? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.~ Micah 6 : 8

“My thoughts are not like your thoughts. And your ways are not like my ways,” announces the Lord. “The heavens are higher than the earth. And my ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.”  ~ Isaiah 55 : 8 – 9

Brokenness and loss of trust in leaders- political, business, media, health, education and sadly, so often, the police- is tearing us apart. When trust is broken and discrimination and injustice becomes appallingly ‘commonplace’, when daily survival is precarious, then fear and division flourish.

Jesus, Light of the World, pierce the darkness of our world and of our understanding.

For many there is the added trauma of grieving, not only the loss of loved ones while separated by ‘social distancing’, but having that loss compounded by bigotry, racism and injustice. Pain, frustration and anger become overwhelming. Words are clumsy tools at times like this, but let us meet the Christ within – in the still center in each of us where you tell us that the kingdom of God already is…

Jesus, Light of the World, come in your loving compassion; pierce the darkness of our world and of our understanding.

We celebrate and give thanks for those people – often of color and of many ethnicities- who confront this evil with strength, offering the transformative way through a firm, unswerving stand for justice, truth, love and mercy. They remind us that we are all one family created from God’s loving heart, and while giving us free will, longs for us to choose to return and follow the Divine way, not our way.

We remember with thanksgiving Patrick Hutchinson, a black personal trainer in London, UK who, with friends forming a barrier, rescued an English Defense League white protestor from possible death after being abandoned by his EDL colleagues in a counter-protest to Black Lives Matter. We remember the leaders of the Diné people (Navajo) in the USA, providing interventions and raising the profile of so many First Nation and Indigenous peoples suffering not only disproportionately during the Covid-19 pandemic but from systemic marginalization and injustice including arrest and deaths in custody. This is a worldwide evil also present in the nations of Australia, Zimbabwe, Chechnya and Amazonia in South America. We give thanks for the wise leadership offered this week by the Dalai Lama in exile and lockdown in India where Covid-19 is prevalent.

Jesus, Light of the World, heal our selfishness and help us reset our values to where each one of us truly looks out for one other as one human family under God.

Help us to dare to travel the road to a new way of living in your Light and and be open to the promptings of your Holy Spirit.

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me;

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me.

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

 

Spirit of the Living God, move among us all;

Make us one in heart and mind, make us one in love.

Humble, caring, selfless, sharing –

Spirit of the living God, move among us all.

                                                                            Daniel Iverson

Hear us, loving, living God, as we pray from the depths of our broken hearts. Amen and amen

 

 

World News in Prayer – Thursday, March 25, 2020

Conversations will not be cancelled.
Relationships will not be cancelled.
Love will not be cancelled.
Songs will not be cancelled.
Reading will not be cancelled.
Self-care will not be cancelled.
Hope will not be cancelled. *

Beloved, how are we to pray in these times of pandemic, when country after country imposes stringent stay-at-home orders? When schools and restaurants and businesses are closed, and all public gatherings banned? When what we do to relax and let go of tension…when the ways we come together to celebrate birthdays and weddings and graduations…when what we rely on to grieve and reassure and comfort one another in funerals and hugs and touch….when these have all been closed off?  When life seems to be increasingly put on hold while we shelter in place, and even those who like long stretches of time alone are finding the walls starting to close in?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when fears start to consume us? When we can’t shake our worries about our own safety and the safety of those we love? When we are daily reminded of the risks taken by health care workers and grocery clerks and delivery people and emergency service providers and all other essential personnel? When closed borders (between U.S. and Mexico, between Germany and the rest of Europe) leave migrant agricultural workers unemployed, while farmers lose their crops and food shortages threaten for lack of harvest labor? When too many are desperate for income as their work places are shut down and jobs eliminated?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when the number of Covid 19 illnesses and deaths keep rising exponentially? When these stop being safely anonymous numbers, and start being stories about real people: the doctor in China who first recognized and spoke out about the impending epidemic; the priest in Italy who gave up his respirator so someone else might live; the nursing home residents in Spain who died alone after having been abandoned by their caregivers; the first known case in Zimbabwe; the first teen who died in the U.S., shocking those who thought only “old folks” were at risk; the relative – of a friend – of one of your online acquaintances, who is now on your prayer list…?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when there are still those (even among our own families!) who believe and spread wild and provably-false conspiracy theories? When seemingly-rational adults claim they have a right to ignore the personal and public safety rules? When there are a handful of religious leaders who endanger those they are pledged to care for, by insisting on holding public worship services in the midst of the pandemic? When too many government leaders still deny the seriousness of the situation and refuse to act, or demand to put profits before human lives? When there is a real risk in other countries that temporary measures put in place for public safety will lead to cancellation of elections, extended government control, totalitarianism?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when nearly every country in the world has insufficient Covid 19 tests, medical masks, respirators, ICU beds, morgue space? When many people lack access to even basic medical care, or can’t afford it? When we know it would take but a single spark to make the epidemic run rampant among the homeless, those in jail, refugee camps, or the many others in the world who simply can’t take the basic precautions of frequent handwashing or social distancing, because they don’t have access to soap and running water, or live in overcrowded conditions?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when our prayer lives are so cramped by worries about the virus, that we can barely take in the fact that there was a major earthquake in Croatia? That the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has suffered another mass bleaching? When we know that there must be so much else going on in the world – both good and bad – that merits prayer, only right now neither the media nor we, ourselves, have the energy to focus on it?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when hints of goodness and love creep into our tightly-closed-in lives? When governments in India, United Kingdom, and Canada promise payments to assist the poor, the self-employed and/or unemployed during this crisis? When banks and other lenders promise not to foreclose on mortgages and extend the time for monthly payments? When homes become festooned with Christmas lights, or candles or stuffed animals in front windows to cheer the neighborhood? When churches and synagogues and mosques learn to worship and minister to one another via the internet, and schools move classes online or send work home for their students? When free web-based courses in just about every subject, and virtual museum and park tours, and music, and dance performances, and amazing photography proliferate and go viral? When grandparents can meet their loved ones through closed windows, and we check in with one another with love, and clergy administer pastoral care (and even last rites) via phone?

Breathe.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Beloved, how are we to pray when we remember that You are with us always? That You are full of mercy – no matter whether we are angry, frustrated, fearful, sad or full of joy? When we believe – or so much want to believe – that “Love will not be cancelled. Songs will not be cancelled…Hope will not be cancelled”? When we trust that Your love for us will never be cancelled?

Breathe.
Breathe.
Lord, you are full of mercy.
Christ, you are full of mercy.
Lord, we are filled with your mercy.
Breathe.

 

*Excerpt from a 3/15/2020 blog post written by Jamie Tworkowski, founder of the non-profit “To Write Love on Her Arms,” https://twloha.com/blog/hope-will-not-be-cancelled/. Reproduced with permission.

Note: There are many, many churches that now have Sunday worship online, with many also offering weekday services. If your own church doesn’t offer this, or if you don’t have a church or are feeling isolated and would welcome this kind of support during this time of Covid 19 crisis, just do a Google search and you’ll find a wealth of options to choose from. And take heart – sampling the many services, as Bishop Megan Traquair (Episcopal Diocese of Northern California) joyously proclaimed last week, is “like hearing Pentecost take place right here in March!”

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

World News in Prayer – Thursday, February 20, 2020

We offer our prayers for the growth of God’s kingdom in our world today, uniting our voices with Christ, who perfects our prayers. Let us pray.

Holy Rock, when our world trembles and quakes, when plagues of locusts take over, and when drought and wildfires wreak havoc on ecosystems, we come to you in prayer. We continue our prayers for the people of Puerto Rico, United States, and countries in southern Africa still experiencing drought, especially Zimbabwe. We pray also for Murrurundi, Australia, a small town that has not felt the relief of rains that much of Australia has. Restore among us a love of the earth you created and give us respect for all your creatures.

Your kingdom come; your will be done.

Friend to all, we pray for the 2,000+ people who have died from the Coronavirus and the approximately 75,000 who are infected. When we are tempted to turn away from your people and find new reasons to discriminate against one group or other, remind us that pointing the finger at anyone based on their ethnicity is wrong and that, before you, all people are holy.

Your kingdom come; your will be done.

God of compassion, we pray for the 32 people who were killed in the crossfire between security forces and the separatists during an attack in Cameroon over the weekend. We pray for the people of Syria, where Turkey and the Syrian regime have been attacking one another harder and harder. Be present with all those fleeing war and violence with nowhere to go. Inspire the hearts and minds of our leaders and our military that they may seek your righteousness and lovingkindness so that liberty and peace may dwell with your people.

Your kingdom come; your will be done.

Divine teacher, may our prayers manifest into actions that guide us toward your will. Send your Holy Spirit’s blessing to each one of us and all of your good creation.

Your kingdom come; your will be done.

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, 18 July 2019

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

Mother God,

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

Teach your children to love you, Lord.

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

Heal your children, Lord.

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

Be with your children, Lord.

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

Soothe your children, Lord.

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

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, 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. 30 And 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.

World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, March 28, 2019

Holy One,

In the dark of the night when tears become our prayers, we believe the Spirit intercedes for us, breathing through our lament.

In the light of the day when fears hushes our voice, we believe that Christ listens to all that we carry in deep within our hearts.

In the midst of life’s cacophony, we believe that you draw us close, even when we struggle to draw close to you.

Not a word is on our lips that you do not know completely. And yet we must pray. We must offer up the yearnings and desires of our heart. We must pray for the world as it is and name the world that we long to see, the one that lives and moves and has its fullness in You, in your love and grace, peace and justice.

Thus, hear our prayers, oh loving, living Lord. Imperfect and incomplete as they might be, hear our prayers and make your presence known to us now.

Hear our prayers for the southern parts of Africa living with the aftermath of Cyclone Idai. We lift up to you all those who are struggling with flooding and fires, devastation, disease, and death. Be with the people of Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe as they strive to rebuild their homes, their lives, their sense of well-being. Be with aid workers, doctors, civilians, and all those who are working alongside each other to bring healing help.

Hear our prayers for those living within tumultuous and transitioning political systems around the world, including Britain, India, and Venezuela. Where people are driven by anxiety, bring forth signs of your hope. Where rage and hatred seem to have the last word, speak again your astounding word of peace. We pray for those who are mighty in power and privilege, who are making decisions for those who are the lowly, the lost, and the least among us.

Hear our prayers for those living in the aftermath of the shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand. We pray for all those who step into their mosques, synagogues, and places of worship with trepidation. May all places of prayer become safe spaces for those who need them. We pray for those whose daily lives have been upended by violence in the past week, including in Yemen, Iraq, Gaza, and Israel. Be with parents, children, students, and civilians who live in the midst of gun violence, from villages in central Mali to subdivisions in the United States.

Through all these prayers, we rediscover again that we are not the saviors of the world. You are. We lift up our hearts to you, praying that our hands and feet might further the work of your kin-dom, today, tomorrow, now, and forever.

Amen.

World News This Week in Prayer- Thursday, March 21, 2019

Loving God,

We know you as a trusted source of direction and purpose. Sometimes we think our thoughts are your thoughts. Sometimes we pray that they are.

But today we pray for the sensory awareness of how you feel. We hope that it will guide us and how we feel about refugees who have experienced the recent Cyclone Idai in Mozambique. Malawai, and Zimbabwe. Whatever would it be like to try to carry everything precious, for skin to protest rough surfaces, for skin to give up, blister, and tear. Whatever would it be like to smell the gradually and then rapidly decomposing bodies of those who did not survive, to hear the cries of those who mourn, to see the struggles of those attempting to find a place of safety, a place of comfort with friends? We pray not just for the strength to be aware in our senses but also for the conviction and creativity it will take for the victims and from us who are not this time victimized

We pray for the insight to respect the loss of generations of family farms in the flooding in the American Midwest. There is deep meaning in a farm that was cultivated by your parents and your grandparents and your great-grandparents and more. Grant us, we pray, vision to see beyond what help can be given by the so-called “social safety net”. Show us more, larger ways to care for them and for all of us.

Open our senses, our minds, our hearts to include the whole world. We need to admit the shame and the pain of the massacre in New Zealand. We do not need to wordsmith and dillydally with how to improve the situation that allowed that catastrophe. You have never asked us, and we should not ask ourselves, only for perfect solutions. You ask for better ones, and so we give thanks for the rapid and compassionate actions of the government of New Zealand banning semi-automatic and assault weapons. As airplanes crash and killers destroy, we try to make every effort to protect our own. Let us not shrink from the truth that we should do better than that. We pray for the courage to do better than that.

God in your glory, raise us up to be the people you need doing the work that needs to be done. Amen