03/02/2024
Closing this World Day of Prayer (WDP) with lament and borrowed hope.
The Palestinian Christian women [who wrote the WDP 2024 worship service] from the place of their collective suffering, have invited the world to pray for particular things this year. So, the ecumenical community at the Church Center for the United Nations - CCUN joined this global call to prayer today. And tonight I share this closing offering. Let us pray….
God who never sleeps or slumbers, grant our sisters and mothers “peace, justice and freedom of religion and freedom of movement.”
Sovereign One who guides & protects, please watch over these your beloved. Your divine reach spans far and wide—over deserts, fields, through clouds, over land and sea. So, please draw in the “women, refugees, persons experiencing homelessness, the sick, the dying, grieving” and the bereft in every village, every country, every city, on each continent, in every region of the world, and especially in Gaza this night and the days to come.
O Ancient of Days, Holy Spirit who tarries with us always, we echo the cries of the Wailing Women and beg you to heal, feed, soothe, comfort and hold the living close, even as we mourn the thousands of women & children viciously slain and used as causalities of war.
Merciful One, as our sisters & siblings worldwide and particularly the Palestinian women in this ecumenical movement who have called us to join them in prayer this day, we ask “finally, that your global church”, [be better stewards of the earth and humanity] “and be united in treating all with justice and love. “ God in your mercy, hear our prayer.
May it be so. -Ase & Amen.
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“World Day of Prayer (WDP) is a global ecumenical movement led by Christian women from more than 150 countries who welcome [everyone] to join in prayer and action for peace and justice. WDP is celebrated on the first Friday of March. The 2024 theme, “I Beg You…Bear With One Another in Love,” inspired by Ephesians 4:1-3. “ - (worlddayofprayer.net)
📸 WDP 2024 artist, Halima Aziz