Dear Lord,
Outside my door it is spring. Winter snows cling to the mountains under a clear blue sky and there is a buzzing among the flowers of the over wintered kale. Here in the US we have celebrated Mother’s Day with the flower markets lighthearted and busy. Our celebrations seem short-lived amidst a pandemic that is horrendous and steady in its sickness and death, amidst rubber bullets in the Holy Land (Israel) at Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Temple Mount, amidst rockets across Gaza and Israel borders and homelands, amidst evictions pending in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, amidst the premeditated killing of girls at the end of their school day in Kabul, Afghanistan and several days later school children in Kazan, Russia.
All of this is too much to contain, to read, to hear, to speak – so in this very moment we find our way to prayer. Lord, center us. Some of us celebrated the liturgy of the Good Shepherd this past Sunday – the sheep and their young protected and sheltered and we too become fed and nourished once again. Sustain us as it feels like we have so much work to do.
In faith we pray: Lord have mercy and hear our prayers.
Our hearts are very heavy. We don’t know what to think. We mourn with the families of the 44 civilians and 139 government forces killed in Afghanistan this past week, the highest death toll in a single week since mid-autumn 2020.
This world needs your sheltering in ways that are hard to imagine. Areas in Cambodia labeled as “red zones” are creating a second humanitarian crisis as 300,000 residents cannot leave their homes to get food and at the same time NGO groups are barred from entering to distribute aid. We pray for India, Sri Lanka, The Maldives, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Nepal as the virus surges and health systems are reaching breaking points especially in the news are these countries.
In faith we pray: Lord have mercy and hear our prayers.
We are grateful that the time spent in customs border patrol by children at the Mexico / US border is greatly reduced. It seems a little-known piece of good news in these times – that they are being moved to compassionate appropriate shelter. We pray that the seemingly intractable problems in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – problems of violence, corruption and economic calamity can be untangled and that a concerted way forward is founded on mercy, conciliation, courage and trust. You know the way. Lead us, Lord. Guide our leaders and strengthen our resolve.
We grieve at the school shooting in Russia where nine people were killed including seven 13 – 14 year old students and their teacher with 21 others wounded. What grief to endure in each community that knows gun violence. May the families know comfort as they receive medical and psychological assistance. Guide the Russian government as new gun regulations are to be swiftly instituted. It is so hard to hear of innocent children threatened, harmed and killed around the world.
In faith we pray: Lord have mercy and hear our prayers.
Lord, protect your people as tens of millions will travel to celebrate with family the Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.
We pray for our global commons – the air we breathe and its pollution, the peerless sky and upper atmosphere that now contain so much waste from our space activity and our shared waters with all of the sea life, now invaded by nuclear waste, plastic pollution and most recently pieces of the Long March 5b reentry rocket from China – all of this reminds us to take nothing on Earth for granted.
Awaken us from our shortsightedness, our ignorance, our misunderstanding and wastefulness.
Teach us patience and watchfulness, give us strength, help us in our compassion to attend to all the little things, to all the sheep and their young. Lord, especially this week keep in your care the children and mothers as we celebrate those living and all those who have been taken from us.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
1 The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Friday that any Israeli evictions in East Jerusalem could be considered “war crimes.”
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