We lift this prayer, written from the ancestral home of the llini, Miami, Shawnee, Dakota Sioux, Chickasaw, Winnebago, Delaware, Kickapoo, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Huron-Wyandot, and Sac-Fox tribes with full respect for their creativity and courage. We lift this prayer that will be read within many other geographic and cultural contexts with full respect for the various ways you have inspired […]
Prayers for Egypt
Egypt is held in these prayers through protest and imprisonment, unrest and its long court aftermath, and the rising cost of bread. Refugees fleeing Sudan and laws that narrow their protection are named repeatedly, along with Egypt's part in regional diplomacy and the care given to civilians brought out of Gaza.
Sighs Too Deep for Words: Prayers for a World of Fires, Floods, Famine, and War (July 27, 2017)
The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple…. My eyes shed streams of tears because your law is not kept. Ps 119: 130, 136 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs […]
Come, Holy Spirit: Prayers for Cyclone Mora, the Kabul Bombing, and Cholera in Yemen (June 1, 2017)
God, our creator, we thank you for you spoke the world into being for good and send your empowering Spirit on all. Forgive us when it is easy to look at all the events which the news media highlights and think nothing ever changes. Yet as the world turns and we move into astronomical […]
This Is the Day the Lord Has Made: Prayers After the Egypt Church Bombings and Stockholm Attack (April 13, 2017)
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 We are stumbling on our way toward the day of Resurrection, gracious God. Stumbling and falling, sometimes crawling on our knees toward the cross, hoping that when we lift our tear-filled eyes, it will be empty, […]
Go From Your Country: Prayers for Famine in South Sudan, Cyclone Enawo, and the Kabul Attack (March 9, 2017)
Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who […]
Because the Media Is Silent: Advent Prayers for Aleppo, Yemen, and Earthquake Zones (December 28, 2016)
We have come to worship you, Shepherd of Israel. Out of the busy-ness we create for ourselves at this season, we come to remember why. We give thanks for the bravery of Mary, for the courage of Joseph, and we ask that these qualities support us in the face of overwhelming commercialization and the rewriting of […]
Bad Deeds Have Consequences: Prayers After the Aleppo Aid Convoy Strike and Police Shootings (September 22, 2016)
“The Bible says little about the temperature of hell nor the furniture of heaven”. This quote from the great German theologian Reinhold Niebuhr fits in with the story of the rich man and Lazarus where we are made aware of the dangers of being mean with our money and uncharitable to others. This is echoed […]
Teach Us to Listen: A Prayer After the Attack in Nice and a Week of Violence (July 14, 2016)
There is a terrifying passage in ‘I and Thou’ by the Jewish mystic Martin Buber in which God says ‘I have sunk my hearing in the deafness of mortals’. If this should be even partly true what a tremendous responsibility it places upon us to listen, to listen to each other with our whole attention, […]
Lord, Hear Our Prayer: For EgyptAir Flight MS804, Sri Lanka’s Landslides, and Venezuela’s Hunger (May 19, 2016)
Heavenly Father, we come to you with open but hurt hearts with this week’s news. May the Holy Spirit fill us with strength and compassion towards our neighbors, near and far. We pray for the millions of students who celebrate their graduations. May their learning enrich our world. Lord, hear our prayer. We pray for […]
He Came Down That We May Have Peace: An Epiphany Prayer for Persecuted Christians (January 7, 2016)
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;…” “I have summoned you by name; you are mine. Do not be afraid, for I am with you;” Isaiah 43: 1 & 5 “Why did he come? He came down that we may have love, … peace, … joy.” Cameroon (Africa) Carol As we celebrate the Baptism […]