Heavenly Father, heavenly Mother,
Holy and blessed is your true name.
We pray for your reign of peace to come,
We pray that your good will be done,
Let heaven and earth become one.
Give us this day the bread we need,
Give it to those who have none.
Let forgiveness flow like a river between us,
From each one to each one.
Lead us to holy innocence
Beyond the evil of our days —
Come swiftly Mother, Father, come.
For yours is the power and the glory and the mercy:
Forever your name is All in One.

— Parker J. Palmer
in Peace Prayers
edited by Carrie Leadingham, Joann E. Moschella,
and Hilary M. Vartanian

May suffering ones be suffering free

And the fear struck fearless be.

May the grieving shed all grief —

And the sick find health relief.

— Zen chant
in Prayers for Healing
edited by Maggie Olman

Hear our humble prayer, O God,
for our friends the animals,
especially for animals
who are suffering;
for any that are hunted or lost
or deserted or frightened or hungry;
for all that must be put to death.
We entreat for them
all Thy mercy and pity,
and for all those who deal with them
we ask a heart of compassion
and gentle hands and kindly words.
Make us, ourselves, to be
true friends to animals
and so to share the
blessings of the merciful.

— Albert Schweitzer
in Prayers for Healing
edited by Maggie Olman

May my feet rest firmly on the ground

May my head touch the sky

May I see clearly

May I have the capacity to listen

May I be free to touch

May my words be true

May my heart and mind be open

May my hands be empty to fill the need

May my arms be open to others

May my gifts be revealed to me

So that I may return that which has been given

Completing the great circle.

— The Terma Collective
in Life Prayers from Around the World
edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon

O God, you bring
hope out of emptiness,
energy out of fear,
new life out of grief and loss;

Comfort all who have lost their homes
through persecution, war, exile,
or deliberate destruction.

Give them security,
a place to live,
and neighbors they trust
to be, with them,
a new sign of peace to the world.

— Janet Morley
inThe Book of A Thousand Prayers
compiled by Angela Ashwin

O Lord, our hearts are heavy with the sufferings
of the ages, with the crusades and the holocausts
of a thousand thousand years.
The blood of the victims is still warm,
The cries of anguish still fill the night.

To you we uplift our outspread hands.

We thirst for you in a thirsty land.

O Lord, who loves us as a father, who cares for us
as a mother, who came to share our life as a brother,
we confess before you our failure to live
as your children,
brothers and sisters bound together in love.

To you we lift our outspread hands.

We thirst for you in a thirsty land.

We have squandered the gift of life,
The good life of some is built on the pain of many;
the pleasure of a few on the agony of millions.

To you we lift our outstretched hands.

We thirst for you in a thirsty land.

We worship death in our quest to possess
ever more things; we worship death
in our hankering after our own security,
our own survival, our own peace,
as if life were divisible, as if life were divisible,
as if Christ had not died for all of us.
To you we lift our outstretched hands.

We thirst for you in a thirsty land.

O Lord, forgive our life-denying pursuit of life,
and teach us anew what it means to be your children.

To you we lift our outstretched hands.

We are thirsty in a thirsty land.

— World Council of Churches
in The Complete Book of Christian Prayer

More Prayers and Meditations:
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6