Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Aina ikaPono (Hawaiian) The Life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.* Great Mystery, You have many names. On this earth there are sacred spaces, defiled and pristine, known and unknown; common places and rare wild places, side streets, landfills, broken down neighborhoods and little streams forgotten as they are […]
May Your Kin-dom Come: Prayers for Ecuador’s Prisons, Uganda, and Afghanistan’s Hunger (November 18, 2021)
Our Mother, Father in heaven. Thank you for your Presence within and through us and all that lives. Thank you for teaching us how to pray. Reveal to us who you are. We see you in the wonder of discovery like the bee expert who found 800,000 bees in an ancient British forest. We see […]
Turn Up and Shut Up: A Prayer for Murdered Land Defenders and the Common Good (September 16, 2021)
“Lord, take me where You want me to go Let me meet who You want me to meet Tell me what You want me to say and Keep me out of your way.” ~ Fr Mychal Judge, Franciscan friar and RC priest, chaplain to New York […]
Lessons from Cranes and Geese: El Salvador’s Election, Afghanistan, and Migrants (March 4, 2021)
As most of you know, World in Prayer is written by a team whose members take turns writing the prayers. And I, who am writing this week – I ran out of words a long time ago. Trapped in what seemed like near-isolation by the pandemic; anguished by its resulting ever-growing number of deaths and […]
Teach Me Your Way: A World Teachers Day Prayer for Kyrgyzstan, Storm Alex, and Yemen (October 8, 2020)
Editor’s note: World Teachers’ Day has been celebrated internationally on 5 October each year since 1994, commemorating the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers, which establishes standards for teacher rights and responsibilities, as well as teacher preparation and support. This year’s theme, “Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Reimaging […]
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 […]
More Than Conquerors: A Prayer After the Kabul Maternity Ward Attack and the Visakhapatnam Gas Leak (May 14, 2020)
Dear God, We take so much for granted. We want things to go a certain way, our way: Forgive us our narrow-mindedness. Help us to see beyond our small spot on the planet, beyond our place in this moment of time. Move us out of our heads and into our hearts. Shake us loose from […]
One of Those Sleepless Nights: A Prayer for a World That Will Not Let Us Rest (January 16, 2020)
Dear Friends in Prayer, Did you ever have one of those sleepless nights? When, after three hours of perfectly wonderful, refreshing sleep, you are suddenly awake, wide awake, for no apparent reason? And when, despite watching a couple of shows on your Kindle Fire (or whatever you resort to during wakeful hours), your mind is […]
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 […]
Precious Lord, Take My Hand: A Prayer for a Melting Glacier and a Warming Ocean (September 26, 2019)
Precious Lord, take my hand. Lead me on, let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, and worn. Precious Lord, there are times when the news of the world – your world – seems only to abuse and abase us, when it seems indeed to assault us. When a large clump of the Mont […]