Prayers for Ethiopia

Conflict in Tigray and later in other regions runs through these prayers for Ethiopia, with civilians displaced, a state of emergency, and tension with Eritrea. Drought, locust swarms, and widespread food insecurity are held alongside thanksgiving for women in law, medicine, and community work.

Under Every Frozen Ground: Prayers for Ukraine, Gaza, Somalia, Nigeria, and Ethiopia (January 25, 2024)

Under every floor is soil, within all soil are roots—taking in nourishment in the unseen dark. Frozen though it may be, each seed holds possibility of transformation. God of transformation, we cry with the Psalmist “how long” when we look upon the suffering of your beloved people and the ways we pit ourselves against one […]

Comfort, Comfort My People: Prayers for Gaza, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Indonesia (December 7, 2023)

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” –Isaiah 40:1 Comforting God of us all, Oh, how we need your abiding peace. A peace that only you can give as we navigate this season in our homes, our relationships, our jobs, our neighborhoods, and our world. God, you say “comfort, comfort,” and yet we feel the […]

I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food: A Matthew 25 Prayer for the Least of These (November 23, 2023)

During a week when many ponder the end of the liturgical year and may follow the lectionary reading from Matthew 25: 31-46, “Judgement of the Nations,” we pray: For I was hungry and you gave me food. . . The world mourns the loss of United States humanitarian and political organizer Rev. Arthur Simon, founder […]

The Thinnest Silence: A Prayer About Listening for the Voice of God (September 28, 2023)

Holy One, Divine Creator, whom some name God, we pray every week for so many things: for those suffering from effects of climate change and the earthquakes, the hurricanes, the super droughts, super fires, and the super floods; for children and women abused and sold and trafficked even in our modern era of development; for […]

Give Us Our Daily Bread: A Prayer for Landslides in India, Famine, and Chile’s Disappeared (August 31, 2023)

Great Mystery, We offer these prayers. We are amazed to hear of a meteorite coming from interstellar space, found in the Pacific Ocean, and discovered to be formed of an unknown alloy of metals. Forger of rock and mountain, waterfall and volcano we are in awe of this world and beyond. And we extract its […]

Strong, Determined, Courageous Women: A Prayer Honoring Six Women Changing Their Countries (March 9, 2023)

As we slow down, breathing in the wonders that are all around us, we give you thanks, Mother of all creation. Amongst the rubble of so much loss we see the joy that bubbles forth. We pray that you will lead us to uncover the truth even when it’s painful for us to see. Guide […]

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 Universe Sings of Your Glory: A COP27 Prayer for Lake Chad and the Amazon (November 17, 2022)

God in heaven, we pray for the successful implementation of the carbon reduction discussions at the COP27 Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. As the conference gained international attention from November 7-18, may we be mindful of the communities that continue to bear daily struggles as a result of environmental challenges forced by climate change: for […]

Lord of the Dance: After the Seoul Crowd Crush and Uganda’s Ebola Outbreak (November 3, 2022)

Sandhill cranes dancing at sunset at Staten Island Rd. Preserve, Northern California. Photo art by a member of the World in Prayer team. Dance, then, wherever you may be,I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he. –Sydney […]

Let All Who Thirst Come to the Water: A Prayer in a Time of Drought (September 8, 2022)

Holy One, there is a song haunting me lately. An evocative melody. A single soprano invokes, “Oh let all who thirst, let them come… to the water.” The first time I heard it, I wept. And lately I hear it often. Unsummoned, it echoes within my soul; a lament in layers of drought. Source of […]