Lord almighty,
our ever-present help in trouble,
help us not to be afraid when we see people in an uproar,
trying to change the world with violence and terror.
Cool the heat of hatred,
and move people to peace
for the good of all.
Set our hearts at peace
with your peace that is ours in Jesus,
and with your promise to protect
and work all for good.
Move us to proclaim your peace to the troubled.
Lord Jesus Christ, you told your disciples, “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid.”
Give us peace, peace that surpasses all understanding, peace and goodwill from you, peace that guards our hearts and minds and keeps them focused on you.
Move us to be at peace, to reflect your peace, to maintain peace with everyone as far as it depends on us.
Teach us to reflect your love, to not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good.
Stir our hearts to be joyful in hope, to endure trials patiently, to persist in prayer as we wait for you. Amen.
Source: Paul C. Stratman for A Collection of Prayers, in response to the unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, August 2020.
This prayer website began on June 18, 2016 as a collection of classic prayers. Usage (unique visitors and visits to pages in the site) has almost doubled each year. I am humbled and pleased to see my work used or linked by many church and Christian spirituality websites. The prayer database now has about 1,450 entries. In the past year I began posting pages of seasonal “Featured Prayers” as aids to those planning worship.
Something strange happened this year. Previous years showed heightened usage in March because of worship planners looking for resources for Lent and Easter, and then dropped in April after the rush. This year, April usage was greater than March, and May greater than April. With COVID-19, the whole world is in a time of crisis and Christians are looking for prayers and prayer resources for worship. The most visited entries in early 2020 have been “Kyrie Eleison / Lord, Have Mercy,”“In the Midst of Life We Are in Death,”“Litany of the Holy Spirit” and “Litany of the Most Holy Trinity.” The common theme in all of these entries is Christians crying out, “Lord, have mercy.”
I pray that God would continue to make this website a blessing to many who visit it, and as classic prayers are shared, make it a blessing to even more as hearts and minds are directed to our Lord, who has mercy.
Lord God, heavenly Father, make us watchful and heedful in awaiting the coming of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that when he stands at the door and knocks, he may find us not sleeping in carelessness and sin, but awake and rejoicing in his appearing; through your beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever.
O almighty, eternal and merciful God, by your beloved Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you have established the kingdom of grace for us in your holy Church on earth that we might believe the forgiveness of our sins. Since you are a God who has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that they turn from their ways and live, graciously forgive us all our sins; through your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever.
Lord God, heavenly Father, we most heartily thank you that by your Word you have brought us out of the darkness of error into the light of your grace. Mercifully help us to walk in that light, guard us from all error and false doctrine and grant that we may not become ungrateful and despise and persecute your Word, as your people did long ago, but receive it with all our heart, govern our lives according to it and put all our trust in your grace through the merit of your dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever.
Source: Veit Dietrich, d. 1549, Trinity 25 / Reformation
Almighty and eternal God, by your Son you promised us forgiveness of our sins and deliverance from eternal death. We pray that by your Holy Spirit you will daily increase our faith in your grace through Christ and establish us in the certain hope that we will not die, but peacefully sleep and be raised again on the last day to eternal life and salvation; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever.
A Collection of Prayers 