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.

We Are Uncertain, Lord: An Advent Prayer for Joy in Venezuela, India, and Iraq (December 10, 2020)

Dear God, We know this above all things – your steadfast love endures beyond all things here on this earth and beyond this earth.  We know this, and yet we still struggle.  We know that we are your people, and we also know that you most certainly are our God. Although we know we can […]

The Road Less Traveled: A Thanksgiving Prayer for a Year of Too Many Changes (November 26, 2020)

Creator God, This year has been different.  We know you don’t need us to tell you that – but it helps to get it off our minds and you have broad shoulders to carry our burden. Easter was different, Eid and Diwali, too.  And now Thanksgiving and next it will be Christmas.  We know people’s […]

A Different Kind of King: A Christ the King Prayer for Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Tigray (November 19, 2020)

In 1925, Pope Pius XI established the Feast of Christ the King, also known as Christ the King Sunday, as a corrective to a major worldwide shift toward nationalism.  This feast day is included in the Revised Common Lectionary and is celebrated by most mainline Protestant denominational groups. O Christ, what can it mean for […]

Help Us to Breathe: Prayers for Jacob Blake, Kenosha, Beirut, and Hurricane Laura (August 27, 2020)

Holy One, As we center ourselves for prayer, remind us that you are as close to us as our very breath, even in these times when you may feel so far away to so many of us; in these times when many of us find it so hard to breathe. You are there with us. […]

Help Us to Hear These Voices: Prayers for Housekeepers, Child Soldiers, and Beirut (August 6, 2020)

Dear Lord, help us to hear these voices. I pray today that my knees and back hold up.  I pray that my mom and children are ok in our two-bedroom apartment while I work at a hotel and clean 15 rooms each day. I pray that my paycheck will be enough, that my car holds […]

We Cannot Go Back to Normal: A Prayer on Inequality, Hong Kong, and Rising Hate Crimes (July 30, 2020)

I never anticipated that now, in the midst of an abundant summer following a beautiful spring, we would still be living out a winter spirituality. But the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought this upon us.  But…We’re All in This Together, Right?….except….  Lowering of pollution that first month—the air so crisp and clear and breathable. Everything stood […]

Help Us Get Our Responses Right: Cyclone Amphan, Michigan’s Dams, and Kabul (May 21, 2020)

Even as the world turns, it seems the world has stood still in the shock of the pandemic. But we know this is not truly so, even as we know that you, Lord, hold all in your hand and love what you have created. Science tells us that hurricanes and cyclones will continue to get […]

More Than Conquerors: A Prayer After the Kabul Maternity Ward Attack and the Visakhapatnam Gas Leak (May 14, 2020)

Dear God, We take so much for granted. We want things to go a certain way, our way: Forgive us our narrow-mindedness. Help us to see beyond our small spot on the planet, beyond our place in this moment of time. Move us out of our heads and into our hearts. Shake us loose from […]

Teach Our Eyes to Smile: Prayers for Chernobyl’s Wildfires, Front Line Workers, and Nations in Crisis (April 30, 2020)

Dear Lord, Sometimes we feel so alone and unprepared and exhausted. Sometimes we feel forgotten and stepped upon. Lord, remind us to breathe, to look outward and to look inward. Lord, remind us that in praying we are doing your will. Help us to examine ourselves and to prepare for each day, knowing you are […]

Like Grasses Showing Tender Faces: A Prayer as the Pandemic Circles the Globe (March 12, 2020)

Every little thing is sent for something, and in that thing there should be happiness and the power to make happy. Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.   Black Elk, (1863-1950) Oh God, we read these words […]