Creator God,
Guided by the words of your servant German pastor Karl Barth, “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible,” we beseech you for the protection of members of our world community:
For a universal water supply that is free of PFAS, forever chemicals. Guide the work of scientists like professors from Stockholm, Sweden, whose work has demonstrated that rainwater exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s lifetime drinking water health advisory levels, the Environmental Quality Standard for Inland European Union Surface Water, and Danish drinking water limits. The water quality guidelines deem rainwater as now unsafe to drink.
For an end to civil strife in Myanmar. The ruling military junta has killed more than 2,100 people, including many children, and has detained some 15,000 others. Fifty percent of all residents are in poverty, at least eight million are in dire need of food security, and millions are displaced.
Bless those working to end the grain and fertilizer shortage caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We thank you for the opening of a Ukrainian seaport and the decision by the United States to contribute $68 million to support the purchase, transport, and storage of up to 150,000 metric tons of Ukrainian wheat.
For the protection of the people of Nicaragua. We join Pope Francis and other faith and national civil leaders by calling for the government of Daniel Ortega to ensure the protection of the human rights of all citizens, in particular the universal rights of peaceful assembly, freedom of association, thought, conscience and religion, while calling for the release of all those arbitrarily detained.
For those suffering from what might be the worst European drought in 500 years, according to a preliminary analysis by experts from the European Union’s Joint Research Center. Some 64% of the EU is under a drought warning or alert, according to a new report from the European Drought Observatory. The bloc’s experts said they expect the warm and dry conditions, which are fueling wildfires and reducing crop outputs, to continue in parts of the region until November.
We commit ourselves to helping with gentle hands
the fragile and vulnerable clay, each precious person given to us.
We will treat them with the same loving patience we ourselves feel
in the hands of the divine potter.
We will open our ears to listen like disciples
as God leads us forward on the next part of the journey.*
AMEN
*AIDS Office, Southern African Conference of Catholic Bishops. “A Potter Shaping the Clay,” in Prayer Without Borders, Catholic Relief Services, 2004.
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