World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Prayers for Afghanistan

Afghanistan is carried here through decades of war and its aftermath, through hunger, avalanches, earthquakes and floods, and through the education and rights of women and girls. Journalists, aid workers and teachers appear often, and thanksgiving is offered for those who keep schools and newsrooms going in hard conditions.

Bread of Life: Prayers for Simone Biles, Climate Disasters, and Conflict in Tigray (July 29, 2021)

O Christ, you once said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35) Today we yearn for your abundant life. We hunger for the bread of heaven to sustain us on our journey to find you. Reveal yourself […]

Creator of the Star-Fields: Prayers for Burkina Faso, Afghanistan, and Israel and Palestine (June 10, 2021)

Creator of the star-fields, During this new moon week, when the sky is the deepest depth of dark, the canopy of stars are especially visible in their brilliance. Pin-pricks of light on the velvet drape of night. We can see an unnameable number of stars, and there are many more we cannot see with the […]

Peace Like an Unpredictable Flower: Prayers for Gaza, India’s COVID Crisis, and Kabul (May 20, 2021)

A note to our email subscribers: If you are getting this prayer for a second time, it means the problem preventing our email service from “grabbing” the current prayer from our website is, in fact, finally fixed! (We’ve been fighting a massive malware invasion, which caused last week’s edition to email twice, and had been […]

Lord Have Mercy: Prayers for Jerusalem and Gaza, Kabul’s Schoolgirls, and Kazan (May 13, 2021)

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 […]

Lord, What Is Happening: Prayers for India’s Pandemic, Global Famine, and Mount Meron (May 6, 2021)

Lord, we thought the human world had turned a corner in the pandemic, so we watch and listen with despair at the news from India and pray and hope the same will not happen in Papua New Guinea. Lord, mighty and marvelous, what is happening? We name especially Yemen, Haiti, Syria, South Sudan and Tigray, […]

You Keep Track of Our Sorrows: Prayers for Daunte Wright, Afghanistan, and a Warming Earth (April 15, 2021)

O God, you come to us wherever and however we might be. No matter how much we may not believe it, we are worthy of your love and grace. Therefore, we uplift to you all of our raggedy and incomplete prayers to you—the ones that fall from our lips, the ones that remain hidden within […]

Lessons from Cranes and Geese: El Salvador’s Election, Afghanistan, and Migrants (March 4, 2021)

As most of you know, World in Prayer is written by a team whose members take turns writing the prayers. And I, who am writing this week – I ran out of words a long time ago. Trapped in what seemed like near-isolation by the pandemic; anguished by its resulting ever-growing number of deaths and […]

They Shall Mount Up with Wings Like Eagles: Prayers for Myanmar’s Coup and India’s Farmers (February 4, 2021)

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall […]

Though I May Speak: Prayers for a Walled World, Famine, and the Storming of the US Capitol (January 7, 2021)

Editor’s note:  World In Prayer needs a few more writers and editors!  Our team consists of 12-15 volunteers, from several different countries and continents. Each week, one person writes the prayers in response to international news. A second person then edits and posts the prayers online.  Because we rotate who writes and edits, you would end up serving […]

I Am For You: A Year’s End Prayer After a Maelstrom of a Year (December 31, 2020)

As I come to write this I am frazzled, angry and baffled at the illogical, selfish behavior of some close to me who with their medical expertise and knowledge should know better and take precautions in the face of the surging pandemic. They are not alone – sadly. Lockdowns, illness, suffering, death, separation, and lack […]