Dear God of all the people who live on the earth, our weeks hold both joys and tragedies that are sometimes near us and sometimes what seems like a world away. We all live and move and have our being alongside our neighbors – those who share our time zones, even the schools for our […]
Ashes and Renewal: A Lenten Prayer for Nations at War and for Rev. Jesse Jackson (February 19, 2026)
Heavenly Father, Having just observed the holy day of Ash Wednesday – as we enter the sacred season of Lent – we come before You in humility. The ashes that marked us, remind us we are dust, and to dust we shall return. Strip away our pride, our distractions, and our indifference. Create in us clean hearts, O God, […]
A Little Bit of Mercy: Prayers Remembering Pope Francis and the Kashmir Attack (April 24, 2025)
The world lost a great leader this week – Pope Francis – head of the Catholic Church since 2013 until his death at the age of 88 on April 21st, just one day after giving his Easter address. Although World in Prayer provides ecumenical prayers, this week, in honour of the man who brought liberation […]
Always We Begin Again: Prayers After the Jeju Air Crash, New Orleans, and Jimmy Carter’s Death (January 2, 2025)
Always We Begin Again “The first rule is simply this; live this life and do whatever is done, in a spirit of Thanksgiving. Abandon attempts to achieve security, they are futile, give up the search for wealth, it is demeaning, quit the search for salvation, it is selfish, and come to comfortable rest in the […]
Discouragement and Hope: After the James Smith Cree Nation Killings and Queen Elizabeth II (September 15, 2022)
Divine One, as we look out upon your world and ours, it is so easy to see things which discourage and dismay us… The deaths last week on the James Smith Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, with ten murdered, eighteen critically wounded and both perpetrators losing their lives. The on-going devastating results of climate […]
Seeing the Good and the Hurt: After the Assassination of Shinzo Abe and Sri Lanka’s Uprising (July 14, 2022)
I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good. Psalm 52:9 (NRSV) Heavenly God, Even amidst the storms that cover our lives, we are so grateful for you. So grateful that you hold us together when we cannot […]
Come Now, O Prince of Peace: A Prayer as Russia Invades Ukraine (February 24, 2022)
As this week, fraught with so many cares and concerns, has unfolded, I have found myself singing this Advent hymn over and over again. And even though it is not the Advent season, this world is certainly in a period of waiting and watching and wondering. And so we sing together: Come now, O Prince […]
Let Justice Roll Down: Earth Day Prayers After the Chauvin Verdict, for India and Chad (April 22, 2021)
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5:24 Dear God, Justice. Justice. Justice. This is what we cry out all the day long, Lord, as we pray for a more equitable world for the people whom you love so deeply and infinitely. God we pray that we might […]
God of Our Ancestors: A Prayer as US COVID Deaths Pass 200,000 and Wildfires Burn (September 24, 2020)
God of Our Ancestors, Since before we were born, you have knit your people into a great reimagining of purpose and life. You call us by your mercy and claim us with your truth. Even in these days of protest and pandemic, show us what it means that you are the Creator, Christ, and Comforter. […]
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 […]