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.

Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying: Floods in Germany and China, and Wildfires (July 22, 2021)

Lord, listen to your children praying, Lord, send your Spirit in this place; Lord, listen to your children praying, send us love, send us pow’r, send us grace. Text and music- Ken Medema God of all creation, God who calls us each and all by name, hear our prayers of anguish, of contrition, of […]

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.” – […]

Shield Us in Every Need: Prayers for Cyprus Wildfires, Haiti, and a Condo Collapse (July 8, 2021)

In name of the Holy Spirit of grace, In name of the Father of the City of Peace, In name of Jesus who takes death off us, Oh, in name of the Three who shield us in every need, If well you have found us tonight, Seven times better may you leave us without harm, […]

Be Still and Know: Prayers for LGBT+ Equality, Africa’s Vaccine Gap, and the Heat Dome (July 1, 2021)

My mind is overloaded and whirling. My mind is blank. My rational mind is leaping from one world event, so often catastrophes and suffering, to the next of fear and injustice. A sense of overwhelming helplessness and anger threatens to engulf me. My soul whispers, “Be still, and know that I am God…. and there […]

Wake the Sleepers: Prayers for Canada’s Unmarked Graves, Tigray, and a Building Collapse (June 24, 2021)

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace. –Concluding Prayer for Compline, from The Book of Common Prayer “When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, […]

Hush the Storms of Anxiety: Prayers for Colombia’s Car Bombings, Hunger in North Korea, and Juneteenth (June 17, 2021)

O Maker of Heaven and Earth, you extravagantly pour out your love upon us to drench and anoint all of creation. It is out of this love that you gave us a home and created an earth of unsurpassed beauty– and called it good. You continue to recreate and repair this world with that same […]

Creator of the Star-Fields: Prayers for Burkina Faso, Afghanistan, and Israel and Palestine (June 10, 2021)

Creator of the star-fields, During this new moon week, when the sky is the deepest depth of dark, the canopy of stars are especially visible in their brilliance. Pin-pricks of light on the velvet drape of night. We can see an unnameable number of stars, and there are many more we cannot see with the […]

Imagine Transformation: Prayers for Mali’s Coup, Gaza, and the Kamloops Children (June 3, 2021)

With all the pain, violence, and sorrow that we see and experience, how is it possible to not grow hard? Some days it seems nearly impossible to see compassion and hope at work in the world. In times like these, we can send compassion and hope out into the world. Loving God, we come to […]

How Long, O Lord: Prayers for Migrant Children, the Gaza Ceasefire, and Nyiragongo (May 27, 2021)

Listen, Lord, as I pray! You are faithful and honest and will answer my prayer. (Ps. 143:1*) We pray for the unaccompanied children still arriving at the Mexico – USA border. We thought the situation was easing as fewer children arrived. Now we realize that children are afraid of the conditions in the holding centers […]

Lord Have Mercy: Prayers for Jerusalem and Gaza, Kabul’s Schoolgirls, and Kazan (May 13, 2021)

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 […]