Prayers for the United States

Prayers naming the United States have followed storms, tornadoes, wildfires and floods across many states, along with elections and political tension, gun violence, and questions of migration and race. Health, mental health and the well-being of ordinary households appear often, as do thanksgivings for its landscapes and wild places.

We Bring Our Hearts’ Cries to You: Prayers for Ukraine, Turkey’s Mine Explosion, and Uganda’s Ebola (October 20, 2022)

Dearest Creator of all that is and ever will be. Guardian of Light. Giver of Breath. Judge of all deeds, seen and unseen. Infuse us with your love, gratitude, and peace. Let us feel safe in a world thriving in chaos and fear. Help us to raise our children without prejudice. Teach us to teach […]

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 Mystery of Your Mercy: Prayers After Hurricane Ian and for Somalia on the Edge of Famine (October 6, 2022)

Elohim, I AM, Jehovah, your names are numerous, our understanding of you, limited. When the horror of humanity confounds us, we place our hope in the mystery of your mercy. We cling to noble acts witnessed in the context of war; healing acts worked in the context of brokenness; justice that breaks through in an […]

The Chaos Before Creation: A Prayer for Iran’s Protests and Hurricane Ian (September 29, 2022)

Holy One, We feel the chaos before creation in the very core of our being. The changing tides – first swelling with hope then sliding toward despair. Waves of grief crash over us, shaking the foundations of our lives. We are buoyed with anticipation excited by what the future holds. Our focus is drawn inward to […]

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 […]

Discouragement and Hope: After the James Smith Cree Nation Killings and Queen Elizabeth II (September 15, 2022)

Divine One, as we look out upon your world and ours, it is so easy to see things which discourage and dismay us… The deaths last week on the James Smith Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, with ten murdered, eighteen critically wounded and both perpetrators losing their lives. The on-going devastating results of climate […]

Let All Who Thirst Come to the Water: A Prayer in a Time of Drought (September 8, 2022)

Holy One, there is a song haunting me lately. An evocative melody. A single soprano invokes, “Oh let all who thirst, let them come… to the water.” The first time I heard it, I wept. And lately I hear it often. Unsummoned, it echoes within my soul; a lament in layers of drought. Source of […]

Let Divine Light Shine: Prayers for Ukraine, Pakistan’s Floods, and Europe’s Drought (September 1, 2022)

As God’s beloved children, let us pray that Divine Light shine on the nations, the earth, and all those in need. For your beloved in war torn areas around the globe, and for areas like Ukraine and Palestine, where foreign occupiers are forcefully controlling villages and territories, we pray for peaceful paths toward justice; For […]

Take Your Bible and Take Your Newspaper: Prayers for Myanmar, Nicaragua, and a Thirsting Europe (August 25, 2022)

Creator God, Guided by the words of your servant German pastor Karl Barth, “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible,” we beseech you for the protection of members of our world community: For a universal water supply that is free of PFAS, forever chemicals. Guide the […]

Not a Spirit of Fear: A Prayer After the Attack on Salman Rushdie, and for Refugees (August 18, 2022)

Holy One, In these times, with the world news heavily upon us, we reflect upon words from 2 Timothy: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” (New Living Translation) Ten years ago, speaking in New York (U.S.), Indian-born British-American novelist Salman Rushdie said that […]