As I draw close to you in prayer, Holy One, I struggle to put words to the cries of my heart and soul. As I read the news of the world, it is a challenge to remain positive and hopeful. So much pain, so much hurt, so much grief, so much destruction. I long for […]
Prayers for Spain
Spain appears in these prayers chiefly through migration by sea, with rescues, drownings, and the welcome or refusal that follows. Wildfires, heatwaves, floods in Valencia and Andalusia, a train crash, and attacks in Barcelona are held here, along with gratitude for citizenship offered to the descendants of the expelled.
Help Us to Set Down Our Weapons: Prayers for Eastern Congo and Asylum Seekers (June 16, 2022)
O Holy One, We think we are listening to you. We are really practicing listening to you. We have a long way to go — to do your will. To love ourselves. To love our neighbor. To Love You. We get distracted — so much is going on around us and worldwide. We have so […]
We Need You Now: A Prayer After the Uvalde School Shooting and the Buffalo Supermarket Massacre (May 26, 2022)
God, We need you now. We needed you yesterday. We need you today. We need you tomorrow. We need you now. We need you to do something. To stop the brutal unfathomable violence that is surfacing in every part of our world. We need you to change the hearts of lawmakers. We need you to […]
We Breathe Your Peace: A Prayer at the Russia Ukraine Border and for Petropolis (February 17, 2022)
Oh God, you lean into us. We lean into you. A flow of relationship that has no end. We are grateful. We are invited to pray without ceasing. This is not a burden but a freeing gift, an invitation to stay present to our constant dance with you. As we pray in each moment our […]
Sing a New Church Into Being: A Prayer for Human Dignity, Melting Permafrost, and Water (January 13, 2022)
As the scheduled writer for this week, I, like so many others, am finding life in its beauty and complexity challenging, dispiriting, frustrating, with more questions than answers and often don’t want to hear what I think God is trying to say to me as the way forward: more of the same old, same old…? […]
Butterfly Prayers: For Haitian Migrants, La Palma’s Volcano, and Afghanistan’s Women (September 30, 2021)
God of limitless love, Thank you for creating us with expansive capacity for love. The heart is a vast landscape. What wonder this is that we can feel so many different emotions, seemingly conflicting, at the same time, that we can love so deeply. Sometimes in the face of all the suffering we see, we confuse love […]
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 […]
Be Strong and Courageous: Prayers for Nigeria’s Protests and Western Wildfires (October 22, 2020)
“I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 Dear God, Our world is changing in ways that we never imagined. We are in need of your unwavering love. We live in a world which holds so […]
O God, Why Are You Silent: Nagorno-Karabakh, Rwanda, and a Million COVID Deaths (October 1, 2020)
O God, why are you silent? I cannot hear your voice; the proud and strong and violent all claim you and rejoice; you promised you would hold me with tenderness and care. Draw near, O Love, enfold me, and ease the pain I bear. Marty Haugen/ Tune: Herzlich mich verlangen […]
Help Us to Breathe: Prayers for Jacob Blake, Kenosha, Beirut, and Hurricane Laura (August 27, 2020)
Holy One, As we center ourselves for prayer, remind us that you are as close to us as our very breath, even in these times when you may feel so far away to so many of us; in these times when many of us find it so hard to breathe. You are there with us. […]