World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Prayers for China

Weather and disaster recur in the prayers for China: typhoons, floods, dust storms and record heat, as well as building collapses. Human rights, the treatment of Uyghur Muslims, protest in Hong Kong, trade tension and the pandemic years are also named, alongside thanks for panda sanctuaries and tree planting.

Your Creation Is Groaning: Prayers After the Uganda School Attack and Record Heat (June 22, 2023)

Your creation is groaning, Living and Loving God. Your creation is groaning as your created ones continue to live in ways that damage the natural world and one another. Your creation is groaning, and so we turn to you with our cries of pain, certain we will be heard. We cry out today for the […]

For the Faithful Persecuted: A Pentecost Prayer for Christians in Six Countries (May 25, 2023)

“The happy day has dawned for us on which Holy Church makes her first radiant appearance to the eyes of faith and sets the hearts of believers on fire. It is the day on which we celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit by our Lord Jesus Christ, after he had risen from the dead […]

To Bask in Easter a While Longer: Prayers for Khartoum and Cyclone Ilsa (April 20, 2023)

Holy and Redeeming God, I want to bask in the glow of Easter Sunday a while longer. I want to believe that things are miraculously better in this world you created. I want, long for, and hope for your presence to rain down and water my weary soul. I look around and find there are […]

Be Not Afraid: An Easter Prayer for Peace Deals and Signs of Hope (April 6, 2023)

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain, Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain: Love lives again, that with the dead has been: Love is come again like wheat arising green. When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain, Your touch can call us back to life again, Fields of […]

The Bond of Our Common Humanity: A Lenten Prayer for Ukraine and Turkey (February 23, 2023)

“The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.” – Jimmy Carter Oh, Lord, you shepherd us. You follow us. You lead us through the fog of our times. We get caught up in fear and weighed down by seemingly eternal prejudices. As we enter this Lenten season […]

Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Prayers for Afghan Women and China’s COVID Wave (January 26, 2023)

Creator God, we praise you and give thanks that your son, Jesus, became a person like us and shared our concerns, joys, anxieties, and happiness. (Matthew 5:1-3)When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: […]

Creator of the Stars of Night: An Epiphany Prayer for Iran’s Protesters, Migrants, and Mogadishu (January 5, 2023)

Creator of the Stars of Night, On the eve of Epiphany, on the eve of the first full moon of the year, on the eve of the funeral of Pope Benedict, hear my prayer for the tomorrows of our world. The USA needs to elect a speaker of the house so that congress can be […]

This Blessing Calls You Home: A Christmas Blessing and Prayer for Every Nation on Earth (December 22, 2022)

A CHRISTMAS BLESSING by Christine Valters Paintner online Abbess at AbbeyoftheArts.com Reproduced with permission This blessing dances at the doorway of light and dark, knows both as sacred: fertile womb space, miracle of blooming. This blessing breathes through those moments of labor when you too birth the holy into this fragile, luminous, hurting world as Mary […]

The Chaos Before Creation: A Prayer for Iran’s Protests and Hurricane Ian (September 29, 2022)

Holy One, We feel the chaos before creation in the very core of our being. The changing tides – first swelling with hope  then sliding toward despair. Waves of grief crash over us, shaking the foundations of our lives. We are buoyed with anticipation excited by what the future holds. Our focus is drawn inward to […]

The Lord’s Prayer for a Hurting World: Violence Against Women, Floods, and Global Drought (September 22, 2022)

Writer’s note: I have no idea where this version of the Lord’s Prayer came from, so I apologise for not giving credit where credit is due. I know I’ve amended it over the years, but it is something that draws me back time and again. So I am using it as a framework for this […]