God of Life,
These prayers, like seeds that we tuck into the soil of You.
We trust You hold them all — our yearning, worry, agonies, hidden longings, and celebrations — in the fertile cocoon of Love.
Each winter as we come out of long dark into the time of bud and bloom
we marvel that what appeared so barren
was waiting.
We pray, trusting the Spirit’s sap is flowing, seen and unseen in our midst
even in the places that feel most devoid of life.
We pray for peace…
- In Sudan — may the cease fire hold for people to flee and needed care be brought to all desperate for aid. May deeper peace be sown and its roots strengthen.
- In places living in daily conflict – Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine
- In Haiti and Honduras amid “war-zone-like” gang violence
We pray for comfort…
- For those in Kenya uncovering the story and lives-lost due to the starvation cult. May those who lost loved one be comforted. May healing flow through the pain and confusion.
- For those in the United States fearful as states are making sweeping laws removing access to care, services and rights.
We pray for courage…
- For 13-year-old Marcelo Jesus Gouriyu who makes a dangerous border crossing between Venezuela and Colombia daily to get to school. For children across the world whose access to education is impacted by violence, poverty and limited access.
- For migrants marching in Mexico demanding systems to change on the border between Mexico and the United States.
- For the LGBTQ community in Iran who rose up in protests this week asking for rights, to be seen and accepted as they are, for who they love.
- For our leaders, may they have dedication and love like Alessandra Korap Munduruku of Brazil‘s indigenous Munduruku community, who was successful in a grassroots win against mining in the Amazon rainforest.
For healing…
- In Argentina during a record-breaking deadly dengue outbreak.
- In Syria and Turkey for earthquake survivors recovering physically and emotionally as they piece together lives within so much rubble, trauma and loss.
- For all those world-wide living with chronic illness, long-COVID, depression, anxiety and terminal disease.
This year in the United States in California, record-breaking and damaging rains brought floods and now the hillsides are carpeted with a superbloom — poppies, goldfields, and lupines in orange, gold and purple. The beauty and the pain are often so close.
You, God of soil, seed, root, wither, compost, rot and resurrection — may we experience you with us wherever we are in our personal cycling of life-death-life, however close we feel to beauty and pain. May we feel that you are closer than close, flowing as healing, sustaining sap within us.
With prayers like seeds blown to the Wind of Love. Amen.
– – – – –
Note: If you haven’t yet feasted your eyes and soul on enough photos of this year’s California Superbloom, you can delight in these: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2023/04/photos-california-superbloom/673705/
Excellent from Daimari 🇮🇳