God of new life, In these Easter days the wonder of the Risen Christ is close. Walking in the budding woods, resurrection is everywhere, the heart-song of the wild daffodil’s golden center, the magnolia’s blushed cup, the downy new leaf and the rippling brook. It is clear that life-death-life is the pattern at the center […]
Prayers for England
England is prayed for here after a mass stabbing aboard a London bound train and a violent attack on an eleven-year-old and a woman, and in gratitude for hospitals whose work has sharply cut deaths. There is quieter joy as well, in pine martens breeding in the southwest and the solstice sunrise over Stonehenge.
Come Now, O Prince of Peace: Advent Prayers for Ethiopia, Nigeria, and New Zealand (December 17, 2020)
Come now, O Prince of Peace, make us one body. Come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile your people. – Geonyong Lee (Tune: OSOSO) With heavy hearts, we come to you during this time of waiting, this time of Advent as we prepare for the coming of the One who is God’s incarnated Love. Only this year, […]
O God, Why Are You Silent: Nagorno-Karabakh, Rwanda, and a Million COVID Deaths (October 1, 2020)
O God, why are you silent? I cannot hear your voice; the proud and strong and violent all claim you and rejoice; you promised you would hold me with tenderness and care. Draw near, O Love, enfold me, and ease the pain I bear. Marty Haugen/ Tune: Herzlich mich verlangen […]
May You Be Well: Prayers for Farmworkers, the Moria Camp Fire, and Sudan’s Floods (September 10, 2020)
May you be well, And all whom you love, And those you work with, And all who eat of the crops you handle. That has been my prayer/mantra at least one afternoon a week for the past month, as I joined with other volunteers to prepare 100,000 Covid-19 prevention kits to be given to agricultural […]
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 […]
Is There No Balm in Gilead: Prayers After George Floyd, for Cyclone Nisarga and a Grieving World (June 4, 2020)
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why has the healing of my dear people not come about? ~ Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead, Holy God? For we, your people, desperately need a balm, a healing, a sense that the desperate pain we are feeling will come to […]
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 […]
A Life in Service to Others: Prayers for Yemen, India’s Migrant Workers, and Tripoli (April 2, 2020)
Nobel Peace Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (President of Liberia from 2006 to 2018, including during the Ebola crisis) writes: Dear fellow citizens of the world, … It does not mean that we are on our own, every country for themselves. On the contrary, it is the sign of a communal response, that border closures make […]
Grant Us Wisdom, Grant Us Courage: Prayers on Tiananmen, D-Day, and Protests in Nicaragua and Sudan (June 6, 2019)
“God of grace and God of glory on thy people pour thy power… Grant us wisdom grant us courage for the living of these days.” (Hymn, Harry Emerson Fosdick) Holy God, we sing our hymn of faith with faith, sometimes in the spirit of the modern proverb to “fake it ‘till we make it”. Our […]
Safe in the Shadow of the Lord: A Prayer on Cheap Goods, Fake News, and Religious Persecution (March 7, 2019)
“Safe in the shadow of the Lord beneath His hand and power, I trust in Him, I trust in Him, my fortress and my tower.” – paraphrase of Ps 91 by Timothy Dudley-Smith Heavenly Father, Your word and being is of compassion, merciful care and everlasting love to all, regardless of merit. The response […]