World in Prayer

It was my week to write the World in Prayer prayers this week. Let's just say that looking at the news depressed me this week.

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God, what do you see when you look at this world? How is it that you can love those who hurt others and destroy your creation? How, if I may be so bold, do you deal?

How do you deal with a suicide bomber who walks into a mosque in Afghanistan where people are paying their respects to a national leader?

How do you deal with a man who abducts and then murders a boy abducted from an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York (U.S.)?

How do you deal when you see people dying from treatable, preventable diseases; or suffering from hunger when food is abundantly wasted; or living homeless when houses stand empty?

Don’t you want to scream?

Do you scream?

Do you have something to say to us? Some words of wisdom or encouragement or comfort? Is there something you want us to do? Some grace you wish to bestow?

Where are you, God? Are you only in the beauty of holiness, or are you also in the ugliness of suffering?

Oh, God, may we seek you and may we find you. May we see you in the beauty of creation and may we not despair of you in the suffering of this world. May we deal kindly with one another and with ourselves. May we face the world with courage and may we, by your mercy, find you there.

Amen.