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.

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…? […]

You Make All Things New: An Epiphany Prayer for Kazakhstan, the Philadelphia Fire, and Colorado (January 6, 2022)

As we continue to ground ourselves in the new year, we celebrate(d) Epiphany on January 6. We remember the legacy of the Magi, who disobeyed the unethical and immoral orders of King Herod and pray that they may show us a way forward with more justice. We celebrate the day Jesus’ physical manifestation was made […]

Prayers at the Year’s End: Myanmar, a Sudan Mine Collapse, and Brazil’s Floods (December 30, 2021)

Holy One, you are author of Creation. You have made both light and darkness holy. We know you in the shining spaces and in the uncertain places of night. We ask that your Holy Spirit descend upon all the forgotten or disregarded corners of this vast world. Infuse them with your abiding peace and everlasting […]

The Light of Your Presence: Advent Prayers for Kentucky’s Tornadoes, Typhoon Rai, and Haiti (December 16, 2021)

The anticipation is growing, O God. As Christmas draws near, the longing for redemption, for salvation, for the coming of Christ swells within us. Yet, even as the hope, peace, joy, and love grow in anticipation of the birth of Christ, we are reminded of the rugged realities of life. In the midst of our […]

O Come, O Come Emmanuel: Prayers for Migrants, the Michigan School Shooting, and Yemen (December 2, 2021)

O Come, O Come Emmanuel God with us, We are so grateful that you are with us. In every moment of our being. The moments when we feel You beating in echo with our hearts and the moments when we feel completely alone. We do not have to ask, You are already and always with […]

When Can We Celebrate Thanksgiving: Prayers for Migrants, Floods, and a Bus Crash (November 25, 2021)

The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from his word Lord, it’s been a pleasant day, in a month of pleasant days and yet I sit here shaking my head in disbelief. This pleasant day results from a much warmer than normal month. Was there really any progress made at […]

May Your Kin-dom Come: Prayers for Ecuador’s Prisons, Uganda, and Afghanistan’s Hunger (November 18, 2021)

Our Mother, Father in heaven. Thank you for your Presence within and through us and all that lives. Thank you for teaching us how to pray. Reveal to us who you are. We see you in the wonder of discovery like the bee expert who found 800,000 bees in an ancient British forest. We see […]

A Prayer for the Lonely: Nicaragua’s Election, the Texas Crowd Surge, and the Belarus Border (November 11, 2021)

Heavenly God, You are the God of our hearts. The God whose love fills our hearts even when they feel empty. You are the God who seeks us out when we have no one and are in the loneliest of places. We are so grateful, God. Grateful when you hold us when we cannot hold […]

Shine Your Light: A Diwali Prayer Against Child Marriage and for COP26 in Glasgow (November 4, 2021)

May these prayers and meditations be received by You, O Lord. Take them and bind them to your will. This is the time of Diwali or Deepawali, a Hindu festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and some Buddhists in the northern hemisphere in the fall. We meditate on the spiritual nature of the victory of […]

No Borders to Your Love: Prayers After the Sudan Coup, for Haiti and an Attack in Iraq (October 28, 2021)

O God, you are the one in whom we live and love and have our being. As you dwell within us, there is nothing that can separate us from your love and grace. Although at times the pain, trauma, and hurt of this world can overwhelm us. Life feels just too much. Come alongside us […]