Dear Lord, Outside my door it is spring. Winter snows cling to the mountains under a clear blue sky and there is a buzzing among the flowers of the over wintered kale. Here in the US we have celebrated Mother’s Day with the flower markets lighthearted and busy. Our celebrations seem short-lived amidst a pandemic […]
Prayers for Thailand
Thailand's grief after school shootings runs through these prayers, along with the call for tighter gun laws that followed. They also carry the cross-border shelling with Cambodia and the fragile ceasefire, and the typhoons, floods and life-threatening heat that reach across Southeast Asia.
Lessons from Cranes and Geese: El Salvador’s Election, Afghanistan, and Migrants (March 4, 2021)
As most of you know, World in Prayer is written by a team whose members take turns writing the prayers. And I, who am writing this week – I ran out of words a long time ago. Trapped in what seemed like near-isolation by the pandemic; anguished by its resulting ever-growing number of deaths and […]
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 […]
Kitten-Shaped Prayers: Ethiopia’s Oromo Protests, Hong Kong’s Security Law, and a Myanmar Landslide (July 2, 2020)
The World in Prayer team member who wrote this week’s prayers has spent the past 6 weeks catching, taming, and finding homes for a litter of feral kittens. It has, she says, definitely affected how she understands God, and how she prays for the world. “You’ll have to forgive me,” she writes, “if these prayers […]
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 […]
Bless Our Mouths With Kindness: Prayers for Cyclone Idai, Venezuelans on the Move, and Rwanda (April 11, 2019)
God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, […]
God of Many Names: Thanksgiving for the Thai Cave Rescue and Prayers for Separated Families (July 12, 2018)
God of Many Names “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear.” Psalm 46:1-2 Holy and Loving God, we come to You from many places, the physical and spiritual. We use different names and descriptions and ideas when we talk about You, or come before […]
A More Perfect Union: Prayers for the Thai Cave Boys, the Capital Gazette and Refugees (July 5, 2018)
This week’s prayers are adapted, with permission, from a prayer written for U.S. Independence Day 2018 by Leslie Barnes Scoopmire. (Inspired by the Preamble to the United States Constitution) In peace, we pray to You, Lord, God: from our rising to our resting we give You thanks and praise for all your blessings. We give […]
Lazy, Hazy Days: Prayers for Families Separated, the Tham Luang Cave and the Saddleworth Moor Fires (June 28, 2018)
Dear Lord, In the Northern Hemisphere, we expectantly “roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer…”* but there is a parent and grandparent duty. We plan exciting activities for little ones in our care, for camps and vacations and community programs. In this season of school year endings we watch and wait for exam […]
Thou Lightest My Candle: Prayers After the Istanbul Nightclub Attack and for Karen Refugees (January 5, 2017)
Psalm 18:28 – Thou lightest my candle. The Lord my God enlightens the darkness. Dear Creator and Comforter, Oh, how we need your light and sustenance. We are reminded of the Holy Family that took flight 2000 years ago, and of the many exiles and refugees of today; we are reminded of the lowly and […]