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.

Anticipate the Coming Light: An Advent Prayer for Samoa’s Measles Outbreak and the Whakaari Eruption (December 12, 2019)

During this season of Advent, this season of waiting, we are called to anticipate the fulfillment of God’s reign. Advent is a chance for each one of us to practice the reign of God in the way we meet and treat one another. As we prepare for this time of prayer, let us anticipate the […]

O Be Careful, Little Eyes: An Advent Prayer for the Climate and Desecrated Graves in Alsace (December 5, 2019)

We open our hearts to you, God of compassion, God of power, Because we know we need your creative power and precision of language when we speak, we need to learn the voice of clarity, to see with vision, to hear with discretion and act with generosity. In this season of hyper-charged commercialism, ever attempting […]

Are We Nearly There Yet: Albania’s Earthquake, Floods in France and Italy, and Thanksgiving (November 28, 2019)

Father God, are we there yet? We are between the last Sunday of the year and the first – are we nearly there yet? “The days are coming” (book of Jeremiah) – are we nearly there yet? We are between the new beginning and end of the last new beginning – are we nearly there […]

Hope on the Horizon: Prayers After US Shootings, Amazon Deforestation, and Unrest in Bolivia (November 21, 2019)

Ever-present God, as we come to the end of another liturgical year, we remember and celebrate the present and coming kingship of Christ. We anticipate the coming day when the prophetic words of scripture are fulfilled and we work, diligently, to co-create a world where all people are loved and respected. Yet, we are perplexed […]

A Great and Awful Time: Prayers for Venice’s Floods, Ebola in DR Congo, and Violence in Gaza (November 13, 2019)

Great justice-seeker of the universe, You know that we live in a great and awful time. You have opened our minds to the secrets of nature, but record flooding in Venice, Italy, and raging fires from the United States to Australia, give us reason to pause about having the power of sub-atomic particles placed into […]

We Build Walls: A Prayer for Those Waiting at Borders and Drowning in the Mediterranean (November 7, 2019)

Dear Lord, Great Mystery, Comforter and Reconciler of All. In your Great Mystery you are a bulwark, a fortress and watchtower. You protect and shield and send light forth to guide and unite. We build walls, over 70 of them across lands and around the world from the U.S.-Mexican border to the fences separating Hungary […]

All the Saints: Prayers for California’s Wildfires, Britain’s Election, and Lebanon’s Protests (October 31, 2019)

Holy God, we give thanks this day for the diversity of your creation. As we prepare our hearts and minds for prayer, we remember that you created our world in all of its differences. We give thanks this day, O God, for all the saints who have come before us: those who worshiped in homes […]

Be Gentle With Us: Prayers for the Kurds, Typhoon Hagibis, and Lebanon’s Wildfires (October 17, 2019)

Be gentle with us, O Lover of Souls. Be gentle with us, for surely in this fractured and fracturing world, that above all is what we need: To (re)learn to be gentle with ourselves. To be gentle with each other. To be gentle with our planet. Be gentle with those – especially with those – […]

I Have Called You by Name: Prayers for Hong Kong, Iraq’s Protesters, and the Turkey Syria Border (October 10, 2019)

[Yay, our website is finally back up! If you subscribe to the email edition of World in Prayer, we apologize that you’re getting last week’s prayers again. Unfortunately, we have no way of telling the email service to skip a post that we’ve already sent out manually.] But now thus says the Lord, he who […]

Come Into These Places: Prayers for Hong Kong, Baghdad, and the Botham Jean Family (October 3, 2019)

God, We lift in prayer this week: Political leaders and all people in Hong Kong, China; North Korea and surrounding neighbors; Baghdad, Iraq; Paris, France; the United States of America and all Central American countries; The family of Botham Jean and all impending fall-out from the sentencing of Amber Guyger; The families of those who […]