So. Many. Words. On this, the anniversary of 9-11, so many prayers float across my screen. I want to take a bit from this one, a bit from that, serve them up, a full-course meal of prayer for those who died and those who lived the first responders then, and now, in so many places […]
Prayers for Iraq
Iraq is named here within long cycles of war and occupation, bombings and displacement, and the strikes and retaliations that draw in its neighbors. Religious minorities, survivors of sexual violence, refugees and the Kurdish question recur. Drought and salt-damaged land are held too, with thanks for old building methods recovered.
Healer of Our Every Ill: A Prayer After the Death of Robin Williams (August 14, 2014)
World in Prayer for August 14, 2014 (As I looked around me at our world this week, preparing to write these prayers, I found myself singing over and over the words to Marty Haugen’s wonderful hymn, “Healer of Our Every Ill”, and so I have incorporated them into the prayers for this week.) […]
God of Grace and God of Mercy: Prayers for Iraq’s Yazidis and for Gaza (August 7, 2014)
God of grace and God of mercy, be among us. So much evil is done in your name, O God. So much that is not favorable in your sight is done in your name. We know that you are love; we know you loathe the ugliness humans create. God of grace and God of mercy, […]
For the Healing of the Nations: A Prayer for the Children of Syria (July 31, 2014)
Is anything too hard for the Lord? Genesis 18:14 Healing of the nations. I watched a documentary on BBC TV called “The Children of Syria,” which followed children for several months from all sides in the war. Watching them parrot the hate for their former friends as taught them by their adult family and community […]
So Many Treasures Are Hidden: Prayers After MH17 and the Taiwan Plane Crash (July 24, 2014)
So many treasures are hidden Lord: When we gave thanks along with the mother whose 2 sons were saved by the actions of a stranger, Reis Leming, in East Anglia in 1953, we were not to know that one would became a professor in Cambridge, England; the other a professor in MIT. Lord, we […]
Come to Me, All Who Are Weary: A Prayer for Fifty Million Refugees (July 3, 2014)
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is […]
Be Still, for the Presence of the Lord: A Prayer for Meriam Ibrahim (June 26, 2014)
“I will create a pathway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 Beloved Holy One, Amidst the muted roar of nighttime and early morning traffic on highways, the stench of diesel and gasoline, the noise of human living, You are here. YOU ARE. Praise be! Whatever our situation – in town, village, […]
How Can We Ask Forgiveness: Prayers for South Sudan’s Children and the Rohingya (June 19, 2014)
Dearest One, How can I ask forgiveness for letting a person die? How can we ask forgiveness not just for ourselves, but for the whole world? Not just for this moment in time, but for all of human history, for all lives to come? Four sleeping homeless people were run over – apparently deliberately – […]
There Is a Balm in Gilead: A Prayer for Farzana Parveen and the Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirls (May 29, 2014)
Go up to Gilead and take balm. — Jeremiah 46:11 “There is a Balm in Gilead” – American Spiritual There is a balm in Gilead To make the wounded whole; There is a balm in Gilead To heal the sin sick soul. Some times I feel discouraged, And think my work’s in vain, But then […]
Come Down, Come In, Come Among Us: A Prayer for the Marginalized and Flight MH370 (March 20, 2014)
Thursday, March 20th 2014 “If God is your co-pilot, swap seats!” (cartoon) “Purity does not come in separation from but in deeper penetration into the Universe … Bathe yourself in the ocean of matter; plunge into it where it is deepest and most violent; struggle in its currents and drink its water. For […]