I love the LORD, because God has heard my voice and my supplications.
Because God inclined God’s ear to me,
therefore I will call on the Lord as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I pray, save my life!”
– adapted from Psalm 116: 1-4
God of us all,
We are grateful that you listen. That you listen to our still, small voices even when we don’t have words to speak. When we can only express ourselves through our tears, our laughter, our music, and our art. We give thanks that you hold onto us even when we cannot hold ourselves.
God, there are so many places in our world that cannot express the anguish which is happening in our communities. We lift up the more than 1,400 people who have fled their homes after the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine this week. As blame ensues, with Kyiv and Moscow blaming each other for the breach, we pray for the investigators are working to determine whether the dam was deliberately attacked.
As devastation of all kinds ravages your world, God, we pray for the people of Nova Scotia, Canada, where wildfires continue to burn, forcing thousands to flee their homes. We pray for all of those in neighboring areas who are being affected by the extremely poor air quality and pray for those, in particular, with asthma and compromised immune systems as they try to get relief.
We pray that you may also listen to the cries of more than 13,000 people who have been displaced in Haiti following heavy rains over the weekend that left at least 42 people dead, according to the country’s Civil Protection Agency. As the waters of several rivers throughout Haiti overflowed, which in turn sparked flash floods, rockslides and landslides, we pray for the aftermath of further instability for your children in Haiti.
God, we pray for the unimaginable tragedy of the worst train crash in India in over two decades, where at least 275 people were killed and hundreds of others injured in Friday’s accident in Odisha state. We cry out on behalf of all of those left behind after this unnecessary accident. We pray for another unnecessary accident where Italian intelligence agents and a retired Israeli security forces member were among four victims of Sunday’s boating disaster on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, where 25 were killed.
We cry out to you, God, and ask you to incline your ear yet again after another mass shooting in the United States, this time a mass shooting at a high school graduation in Richmond, Virginia (USA) which turned to terror on Tuesday when a gunman opened fire outside the ceremony where hundreds of people were waiting. We pray for those who were killed, including an 18-year-old student who had just graduated.
God, incline your ear.
Incline your ear so that we may be heard.
Incline your ear so that we may be healed.
Incline your ear so that we may be covered by your peace.
Incline your ear so that one day we may be covered by your life-giving mercy.
May we incline our collective ears to one another so that we may share empathy instead of lacking care for one another.
May we freely share our love and care as we pray for all of your children now and always.
Amen.
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