World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Prayers for Germany

Germany is prayed for here in its welcome of refugees, in demonstrations and attacks on Jewish and immigrant neighbors, and in floods that took many lives in 2021. The fall of the Berlin Wall and changes of chancellor are marked, with thanks for those who counter extremism and for the return of the lynx.

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 […]

My Soul in Stillness Waits: An Advent Prayer for 117 Million Displaced People (December 5, 2024)

Attentive Nervous Thoughtful Incarnation Concerned Immanuel Preparing Awaiting Testify Expecting The season of Advent, literally “the coming,” holds special significance for many anticipating justice. The United Nations reports that 117.3 million people are currently displaced from their homes due to war, environmental disasters, and political instability.  People from Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, […]

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 […]

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: […]

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 […]

Not a Spirit of Fear: A Prayer After the Attack on Salman Rushdie, and for Refugees (August 18, 2022)

Holy One, In these times, with the world news heavily upon us, we reflect upon words from 2 Timothy: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”   (New Living Translation) Ten years ago, speaking in New York (U.S.), Indian-born British-American novelist Salman Rushdie said that […]

Eternal God, Love’s Trinity: A Prayer for the Cost of Living, Fossil Fuels, and Hunger in Madagascar (June 9, 2022)

Eternal God. . . Love’s trinity, self perfect, self sustaining; Love which commands, enables and obeys. . . We praise and thank you that you love and care for all people. In your love enable us to hear what you say and obey your command to love one another. In love of one another we […]