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.

Well May the World Go: A Prayer of Anguish After the Charleston Church Shooting (June 18, 2015)

Well may the world go, The world go, the world go, Well may the world go, When I’m far away. — Pete Seeger (c. 1973) For months now, this has been my wake-up song, a conscious choice to spend my first moments of each day letting go of all I can’t control, of all I cannot […]

Your Kingdom Grows in Day and Night: Prayers for China’s Children and Canada’s Schools (June 11, 2015)

Gracious Lord, we seek your Kingdom, which grows during both day and night. Help us, even when we do not know how, to remember that when things seem dark you are still at work in the world. We pray for China where the mass migration of parents looking for work have left millions […]

Sustained by God’s Love: Prayers for the Yangtze River Ship Disaster and the Accra Fire (June 4, 2015)

Assured of God’s grace and sustained by God’s love, let us open our hearts and minds as we pray together. Ever present God, with thanksgiving and praise we honor you for the gift of life. Your love strengthens us in times of despair, your wisdom speaks to us in times of uncertainty, and your Spirit […]

In That Promise We Rest: Prayers for US Flooding, India’s Heat Wave, and a Japanese Volcano (May 28, 2015)

When reports come in of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history; this is no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Famines and earthquakes will occur in various places. This is nothing compared to what is coming. – Matthew […]

Who Is So Hurt I May Not Know Their Heartache: After the California Oil Spill (May 21, 2015)

“Who is so hurt I may not know their heartache?” asks the old hymn I Would Be True. We pray today for the heartbreak of the world. For the heartbreak of those who struggle with over 100 thousand gallons of oil poured from a broken pipeline…who struggle with the devastating effects on one of the […]

Love One Another: Prayers After the Pakistan Helicopter Crash and Oklahoma Tornadoes (May 8, 2015)

Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” God of Love and Light and Life, God of All Time and No Time, sometimes the demands of everyday life just overtake us and we forget, we lose track, we neglect those things to which we have committed ourselves- […]

The Sacred Among Us: Prayers for Nepal’s Displaced and for Mothers Everywhere (May 7, 2015)

In all our joys and in all our concerns, may we be ever mindful of the presentness of the sacred among us, and to see new possibilities of the now. Creativity God, be our guide in re-imagining our human institutions of government. As the United Kingdom‘s parliament undergoes a change and the United States continues to […]

Prayer Tree: After the Nepal Earthquake, the Baltimore Riots, and Chile’s Calbuco Volcano (April 30, 2015)

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. – Romans 12: 12 I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. -1 Cor 14: 14 – 16 Pray continually – 1 Thessalonians […]

This We Can Do, We Can Pray: For Yemen, Chile’s Volcano, and Ethiopian Christians (April 23, 2015)

We have come to worship you, Lord our Shepherd. You, Lord, are our shepherd. Like any shepherd you watch over us, lead us to the best pastures of the mind, the best waters for the spirit, and like sheep we follow. Sheep are not stupid and neither are we. Forgive us our tendency to act […]

Lift Up the Light of Your Countenance: For Migrants Drowned Near Italy and for Yemen (April 16, 2015)

Many are saying, “Oh, that we might see better times!” Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O LORD. – Psalm 4:6 In this season of resurrection, lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord, that we may see your risen Son, Jesus Christ, who walks with us, […]