We hope that full shalom will come when the four billion of us who believe in a Transcendent Other are converted more deeply to the enlightenment that calls us all not to kill, not to lie, not to steal, not to lust, to respect parents, and to help the needy and weak. The teaching of […]
Be Our Candle Light: A Christmas Prayer and Blessing for Every Nation on Earth (December 29, 2023)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” –John 1:1-4 Dearest One, heart of our hearts, You came into the world bearing Light. You came into the […]
Thanksgivings, Concerns, and Celebrations: Prayers for Ukraine, Kenya, and a World in Heat (July 20, 2023)
Mother God, we come to you with thanksgivings. We are grateful to be loved by You. We are grateful for hands to hold, for kindness, and for grace. We are grateful for sunshine, rain, and rainbows. We are grateful for the farmers and laborers who give us our daily bread. We are grateful for forgiveness. […]
This Blessing Calls You Home: A Christmas Blessing and Prayer for Every Nation on Earth (December 22, 2022)
A CHRISTMAS BLESSING by Christine Valters Paintner online Abbess at AbbeyoftheArts.com Reproduced with permission This blessing dances at the doorway of light and dark, knows both as sacred: fertile womb space, miracle of blooming. This blessing breathes through those moments of labor when you too birth the holy into this fragile, luminous, hurting world as Mary […]
Somewhere, Right Now: Prayers for Kyiv, Refugees in Poland, and Famine in Somalia (December 8, 2022)
Ancient of Days, Somewhere in Kiev, Ukraine, a man plays his guitar with his old, faithful pup howling along, even though they sing in darkness. Somewhere in Krakow, Poland, a grandmother folds shirts, presses trousers, routines to calm her anxious heart, even as the unexpected guests in their small home yearn to return to their […]
World in Prayer Is on Vacation: An Invitation to Join Our Volunteer Prayer Writers (July 28, 2022)
World in Prayer is on vacation this week. Sort of. The truth is that our extraordinary prayer writers and editors are all volunteers, and by sheer chance, it turns out that several are facing family/job/life changes simultaneously. Which left us without anyone able to write the prayers for this week. But that also makes this […]
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 […]
God With Us: A Christmas Blessing for Every Person and Every Nation on Earth (December 23, 2021)
When the child was born – that child, you know – God blessed the world with light, with joy, with gladness. It wasn’t the first time God had proclaimed the goodness of creation. That happened right from the beginning. And over and over again, through many peoples and cultures and religious traditions. Nor will it […]
Creator of Us All: Indigenous Peoples Day Prayers for Ethiopia and California’s Sequoias (October 14, 2021)
“Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to humankind, humans belong to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Humanity […]
We Are Uncertain, Lord: An Advent Prayer for Joy in Venezuela, India, and Iraq (December 10, 2020)
Dear God, We know this above all things – your steadfast love endures beyond all things here on this earth and beyond this earth. We know this, and yet we still struggle. We know that we are your people, and we also know that you most certainly are our God. Although we know we can […]