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.

May You Be Well: Prayers for Farmworkers, the Moria Camp Fire, and Sudan’s Floods (September 10, 2020)

May you be well, And all whom you love, And those you work with, And all who eat of the crops you handle. That has been my prayer/mantra at least one afternoon a week for the past month, as I joined with other volunteers to prepare 100,000 Covid-19 prevention kits to be given to agricultural […]

Lord Have Mercy: A Prayer for Dijon Kizzee, Health Care Cut Short, and Words That Wound (September 3, 2020)

We pray Lord, We pray some of us on our knees, some hands folded, palms to heart, forehead to ground, some raising a sign in protest, some gritting their teeth and eyes tight shut and others lighting a candle. We pray for your mercy in these tumultuous times, in these times where every shooting raises […]

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. […]

Let Me Hear of Your Steadfast Love: Prayers for Iowa’s Tornadoes and the Mauritius Oil Spill (August 20, 2020)

“Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” Psalm 143:8 Dearest creator of us all, It is to you that we lift our souls and our very beings. As we draw […]

Abide with Us: Prayers for Beirut, Belarus, and the Last Arctic Ice Shelf (August 13, 2020)

Holy Creator, You are at our Beginning and our Ending, the one who wakes us in the morning and settles us to sleep at night. When we move through the fog of uncertainty, bring a piercing light of a clarity, even if just for a moment. When we want to plop down in heaps of […]

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 […]

We Cannot Go Back to Normal: A Prayer on Inequality, Hong Kong, and Rising Hate Crimes (July 30, 2020)

I never anticipated that now, in the midst of an abundant summer following a beautiful spring, we would still be living out a winter spirituality. But the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought this upon us. But…We’re All in This Together, Right?….except…. Lowering of pollution that first month—the air so crisp and clear and breathable. Everything stood […]

Your Glory Fills the Skies: Prayers for Yemen, Locust Swarms, and Monsoon Floods (July 23, 2020)

Ever-creating God, Your glory fills the skies, from the transient sparkle of the fleeting meteor to the unexpected spectacle of Comet Neowise; your glory fills the earth from mountain height to ocean depth. We praise you. As difficult as it is to find words to express how much your glory thrills and excites us it […]

Give Grace to Your Servants: A Prayer of Grief for a World Apart (July 16, 2020)

This week’s prayer contains excerpts from The [Episcopal] Book of Common Prayer. Lord God, today we gather in Your name, though most of us not in the indoor spaces that have come to symbolize gathering spaces for those seeking truth, justice, and faith. Many of us struggle to feel the sacred or even simple connection […]

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 […]