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.

We Are God’s Poem: Prayers for Cuba’s Protests, Haiti, and an Iraq Hospital Fire (July 16, 2021)

“For we are God’s handiwork [trans. poiema, poem], created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.” – New International Version “We are God’s works of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he meant us to live.” – […]

Father Earth and Mother Sky: Prayers for Indianapolis, Tigray, and India’s Oxygen Crisis (April 29, 2021)

Oh God, Our Father Earth and Mother Earth, Help us to center our hearts, our thoughts, our yearnings, to let go of past wrongs and uncertain futures, to let the air out and take a simple breath in – here in the present of your eternal time. We acknowledge the lands of our ancestors. We […]

Though I May Speak: Prayers for a Walled World, Famine, and the Storming of the US Capitol (January 7, 2021)

Editor’s note: World In Prayer needs a few more writers and editors! Our team consists of 12-15 volunteers, from several different countries and continents. Each week, one person writes the prayers in response to international news. A second person then edits and posts the prayers online. Because we rotate who writes and edits, you would end up serving […]

We Are Uncertain, Lord: An Advent Prayer for Joy in Venezuela, India, and Iraq (December 10, 2020)

Dear God, We know this above all things – your steadfast love endures beyond all things here on this earth and beyond this earth. We know this, and yet we still struggle. We know that we are your people, and we also know that you most certainly are our God. Although we know we can […]

A Different Kind of King: A Christ the King Prayer for Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Tigray (November 19, 2020)

In 1925, Pope Pius XI established the Feast of Christ the King, also known as Christ the King Sunday, as a corrective to a major worldwide shift toward nationalism. This feast day is included in the Revised Common Lectionary and is celebrated by most mainline Protestant denominational groups. O Christ, what can it mean for […]

Help Us to Hear These Voices: Prayers for Housekeepers, Child Soldiers, and Beirut (August 6, 2020)

Dear Lord, help us to hear these voices. I pray today that my knees and back hold up. I pray that my mom and children are ok in our two-bedroom apartment while I work at a hotel and clean 15 rooms each day. I pray that my paycheck will be enough, that my car holds […]

Give Grace to Your Servants: A Prayer of Grief for a World Apart (July 16, 2020)

This week’s prayer contains excerpts from The [Episcopal] Book of Common Prayer. Lord God, today we gather in Your name, though most of us not in the indoor spaces that have come to symbolize gathering spaces for those seeking truth, justice, and faith. Many of us struggle to feel the sacred or even simple connection […]

Like Grasses Showing Tender Faces: A Prayer as the Pandemic Circles the Globe (March 12, 2020)

Every little thing is sent for something, and in that thing there should be happiness and the power to make happy. Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World. Black Elk, (1863-1950) Oh God, we read these words […]

Come, Lord, Take Our Fear Away: Tennessee Tornadoes, Floods, and Children at the Borders (March 5, 2020)

Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. … (God said) I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon […]

One of Those Sleepless Nights: A Prayer for a World That Will Not Let Us Rest (January 16, 2020)

Dear Friends in Prayer, Did you ever have one of those sleepless nights? When, after three hours of perfectly wonderful, refreshing sleep, you are suddenly awake, wide awake, for no apparent reason? And when, despite watching a couple of shows on your Kindle Fire (or whatever you resort to during wakeful hours), your mind is […]