Prayers for Gaza

Death and famine that will not end, medical needs that go unmet, and a people living beside a barrier that cuts their land in two: this is what the prayers here carry. They also ask, again and again, for the day when walls give way to open roads.

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace: A Holy Week Prayer for Gaza and the West Bank (April 17, 2025)

As the Christian world celebrates the holiest three days of the year, we lift in prayer the people of the very lands that Jesus trod before he rose to deliver us from sin. Unfortunately, the first stage of the ceasefire between the Israelis and the Palestinians expired last month and the combating parties and outside […]

A Song of Peace: Prayers for Greenland, Venezuela, and Gaza with Dag Hammarskjold (March 27, 2025)

The author of this week’s prayer writes, “Last week, our church hosted clergy from India, Holland, Belgium, Austria, the Czech Republic for an international meeting. I welcomed them with a sign listing their names and unsorted flags and invited observers to connect the national flag to each name. When some nations appear to want to […]

A World Prayer for Unity, Peace, and Healing: Gaza, Serbia, and Ukraine (March 6, 2025)

A World Prayer for Unity, Peace, and Healing We come together in this sacred moment, our hearts intertwined across continents and cultures, acknowledging the diverse tapestry of beliefs that enrich our world. Today, we lift our prayers for healing, understanding, and harmony, recognizing the sacredness in all paths toward truth and love. We hold in […]

Have Mercy: A Prayer After Bishop Budde’s Plea, for USAID and a Wounded World (February 20, 2025)

Introduction to the prayer: (If prayer is used in a worship service, the people, the congregation, read aloud the bold print.) Just over a month ago, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, The Right Reverend Mariann Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington D.C., USA delivered a sermon at the Washington Cathedral as a prelude […]

Am I My Brother’s Keeper: A Prayer for Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Detained Migrants (February 13, 2025)

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Do You Believe This: Prayers for Christian Unity, Gaza, the Uyghurs and a Warming World (January 23, 2025)

Writer’s Note: Every year, the northern hemisphere recognizes a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity between 18 January and 25 January. This focus on Christian unity recognizes Jesus’ prayer in John chapter 17 that the church “may all be one … so that the world may believe.” For 2025, Christians around the world were encouraged […]

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel: Prayers for the Israel Lebanon Ceasefire and Aid to Gaza (November 28, 2024)

Will you come to our world, God? And will you come with hope? For we see too many situations we can only lament, too few that lift our spirits; too much despair, too little resilience and respect; too many longings and laments and limited visions, too few steps forward. O come, O come, Emmanuel. And […]

The Wind of Your Love: Prayers for 1,000 Days of War in Ukraine, a Bomb Cyclone, and Delhi’s Smog (November 21, 2024)

Dear God, For the people who make a difference, for the love and care that has been shown to each of us by individuals, by communities, by the entities that hold us and call us good, we show our gratitude to you as they are inspired by you alone, God. For the challenges we face, […]

Here Am I, Send Me: A Prayer on 18 Billion Dollars, Election Spending and Global Inequality (November 7, 2024)

Great Mystery, In the first waking moments of the day, it feels like the world is soft, untrammeled, freshly made and yet soon it seems to twist and turn surprising us, horrifying us, challenging us, asking us “who are we listening to?” From Isaiah 6:8 these words: Then I heard the voice of the Lord […]

Glimmers of Grace: Prayers for Elections, Gaza, the Spanish Floods and Sudan’s Women (October 31, 2024)

Loving God, We know that our world is often uncertain. Many nations have recently faced elections, such as British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick in Canada, and Japan, where the Liberal Democratic Party, which has held power almost continually since 1955, lost its single-party majority at Sunday’s election. We also know that in some places, elections […]