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.

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear: A Toronto Officer, a Hyderabad Priest and a Montgomery Memorial (April 26, 2018)

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” ~ 1 John 4:7 “Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love […]

Entertain Angels Unaware: Remembering Barbara Bush and Winnie Mandela, and Praying for Our Leaders (April 19, 2018)

We call ourselves to remember, dear God, that you are one. We call you to hear our prayer as we struggle for focus. Our world, your world, changes so drastically. We pray for the immediate survivors of the deaths of the famous, like Barbara Bush in the United States and Winnie Mandela in the Republic […]

Shalom Be With You: Prayers for Douma, Parkland and the Muenster Attack (April 12, 2018)

[Jesus] stood among them and said to them, ‘Shalom be with you.’ ~ Luke 24:36 God of creation and creativity, you’ve given us the gift of language and communication so that we might speak of and learn about you, however feeble our understanding might be. We often take the gift of words for granted, forgetting […]

An Aftermath Prayer: Remembering Hurricanes, Refugees and a Martyr Fifty Years On (April 5, 2018)

An Aftermath Prayer (Luke 24:32-33) Holy God, You defeated doubt and death on Easter morning. You turned the world of what is possible and impossible upside down. You gave us Resurrection. Now comes the aftermath. In the aftermath of many things in life we often fail to follow through with our joy, our intentions, our […]

Be Thou My Vision: Prayers for the Nepal Plane Crash, the Skripal Poisoning, and Parkland Walkouts (March 15, 2018)

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that thou art: Thou my best thought both by day and by night, Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light. (Irish Traditional, Tune SLANE) O Light of the World, we stumble around in the darkness of this world which […]

Show Us the Next Right Step: Prayers for Sri Lanka, Syria, Yemen, and School Shooting Survivors (March 8, 2018)

Holy One, When we want to linger in shadows, you expose us to light. When we want to slump into a corner, you lift us up in your presence. When we think our words, our actions, our lives have no effect, you remind us that we are leading people in surprising and unexpected ways. So […]

Cradle Your Children: Prayers for Europe’s Snows, Syria, Parkland, and Ethiopia’s Emergency (March 1, 2018)

Holy One, You are a God of Might and Majesty, Tenderness and Vulnerability. You are the one who casts stars into the heavens and who brings forth the first green shoots from the fertile ground. All of Creation cannot hold your glory; and yet you cradle us in gentle wings of mercy. All this is […]

Be Still and Know: A Prayer Amid Gunfire, Bombings, and the Cries of Refugees (February 22, 2018)

“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) O God, O God, my God, our world is full of anything but stillness. There is no silence to be found, I fear; no quiet about. We hear of your “still small voice”, we know You have taught that there is virtue in silence, we […]

It Seems Very Odd, Lord: Prayers for Cape Town’s Drought, Parkland, and a Week of Crashes (February 15, 2018)

It seems very odd, Lord, that people call for January to be a month to try being vegan when Lent was a period, 40 days, in the time before world trade hit our food markets when it was a necessity. We pray for those to whom being vegan is not a life style choice […]

Breathe and Behold: Prayers for Cape Town and Flint’s Water, Syria’s Siege, and Winter Olympians (February 8, 2018)

Holy One, We keep scrolling through the news, forever flicking from catastrophe to exhilaration to trauma, over and over and over again. Make us stop. Force us to take a break. Teach us how to breathe. Show us how to behold–rather than barrel through–your world. We pray that we might take a break and breathe […]