World in Prayer

Sharing in God’s loving compassion for all

Prayers for India

The prayers that name India range widely: heatwaves and floods, the pandemic years, elections and communal tension, the treatment of women and of Dalit and tribal communities, and the safety of workers. Thanksgivings appear too, for rescues, tree planting and voices calling for interfaith unity.

Lord, Have Mercy: Prayers for US Mass Shootings, Alberta’s Wildfires, and Children Forced into Labor (May 11, 2023)

  God of all, the One who hears our prayers, our tears could cover the earth for the abuse of children, the flagrant killing and loss of life we hear in the news daily. Someday will these words, this news be read? Will those people shake their heads and ask God for mercy on our […]

To Bask in Easter a While Longer: Prayers for Khartoum and Cyclone Ilsa (April 20, 2023)

Holy and Redeeming God, I want to bask in the glow of Easter Sunday a while longer. I want to believe that things are miraculously better in this world you created. I want, long for, and hope for your presence to rain down and water my weary soul. I look around and find there are […]

Hosanna, Hosanna: A Palm Sunday Prayer After a School Shooting and the El Paso Fire (March 30, 2023)

Holy One, You who rode the simple donkey through the streets as the palm branches caught the sun. We hear the echoes of Hosanna, Hosanna through time as we remember, remember… Hosanna, Hosanna which means save us. And You do save us, in each moment. Your saving presence is with us always. Closer than we […]

A Wideness in God’s Mercy: A Confession for the Global Water Crisis (March 23, 2023)

World in Prayer- Thursday, 23 March 2023 “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea”… so goes the old hymn. And we, your created ones, created to be co-creators with you, cling to this truth, Gracious One, often as a way of letting ourselves off the hook for our failure to […]

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 […]

You Have the Truth to Set Us Free: A Thanksgiving Prayer for the Trafficked and Displaced (November 24, 2022)

“… for I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of His Holy Word.”  John Robinson. Lord, the news is difficult, often strange, maybe false, maybe half truth, out of context and fuelled by conspiracy.  What a relief to know that you have the truth contained within yourself; granted […]

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 […]

Grief and Hope: A Prayer After the Thailand School Shooting and the Kabul Bombing (October 13, 2022)

We long to become disciples of silence and hear in that shimmery soundlessness the voice of the One who whispers in stillness, whose singing vibrates in stones, who out of the silence calls forth a radical commitment of which we do not yet know the shape. – Christine Valters Paintner We pray to the One […]

The Lord’s Prayer for a Hurting World: Violence Against Women, Floods, and Global Drought (September 22, 2022)

Writer’s note: I have no idea where this version of the Lord’s Prayer came from, so I apologise for not giving credit where credit is due. I know I’ve amended it over the years, but it is something that draws me back time and again. So I am using it as a framework for this […]