“For What Shall We Pray?” is a weekly post inviting individuals, groups, and congregations to lift up our world in prayer. This resource is prepared by a variety of leaders in the ELCA and includes prayer prompts, upcoming events and observances, and prayer suggestions from existing denominational worship materials. You are encouraged to use these resources as a starting point, and to adapt and add other concerns from your local context. More information about this resource can be found here.
Prayer prompts:
For the students and staff at Covenant School in Nashville, and for all who are grieving, traumatized, and fearful…
For open-heartedness, courage, and humility in conversations about gun violence and meaningful change in our society…
For families and friends of those who died in the immigration center fire in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico…
For earthquakes and severe weather in California…
For cleanup efforts following a chemical spill in the Delaware River…
For all those recovering from the devastating tornado in western Mississippi and Alabama…
For the people of Israel in the midst of political turmoil…
For peace in Ukraine and de-escalation of nuclear threats…
For Muslim siblings observing Ramadan, Jewish siblings preparing for Passover, and Christians who prepare to enter Holy Week…
For LBGTQIA+ siblings, especially children and youth, amidst restrictive legislative actions in state legislatures across the United States…
In lament over acts of discrimination, hatred, and oppression done in the name of Christ…
Events and observances:
Sexual Assault Awareness Month (month of April)
Ramadan (Islam, March 22-April 21)
Passover (Judaism, April 5-13)
Hans Nielsen Hauge, renewer of the church, died 1824 (March 29)
John Donne, poet, died 1631 (March 31)
Benedict the African, confessor, died 1589 (April 4)
Artists Albrecht Dürer, died 1528; Matthias Grünewald, died 1529; and Lucas Cranach, died 1553 (April 6)
Prayers from ELCA resources:
Resources for responding to gun violence and national distress:
Prayer for Lament (ACS p. 61)
Service After a Violent Event (ACS p. 64)
Prayers for Civic Life, Government, and the Nations (ACS p. 48-50)
A prayer for peace (ELW p. 76)
Gracious and Holy God, lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth. Lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead us from hate to love, from war to peace. Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
A prayer for the public church (ACS, p. 47)
Mighty and merciful God, lover of justice and equity, you call us to support the weak, to help those who suffer, and honor all people. By the power of your Holy Spirit, make us advocates for your justice an instrument of your peace, so that all may be reconciled in your beloved community; through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
A prayer for time of conflict, crisis, disaster (ACS, p. 49)
God, our healer and our refuge, we pray for all who suffer from gun violence. With your mercy, bind up their wounds, restore their bodies and heal their hearts. Comfort the mourners and embrace the lonely. With your might, empower us to change this broken world. Make us advocates for a stable society, alive with hope in you. We ask this through the one once wounded for our transgressions and now standing with us in our sorrows, Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.
A prayer against prejudice and racism (ACS p. 51)
O God, you divinity transcends, distinctions of gender, and through the generations you widen our awareness of human diversity. We gather here before you in our various expressions of gender identity, all of us one in Christ Jesus. Bring our society to peacefulness concerning a wider understanding of gender. Give courage and healing to those whose expressions of gender they testify as gift from you. Open the church to their witness. We asked with your creative spirit you cultivate new relationships, Amanda, old wounds, and nurture communities expect, for the sake of the one who embrace is all persons in love, Jesus Christ, our savior. Amen.
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ELW = Evangelical Lutheran Worship
ACS = All Creation Sings: Evangelical Lutheran Worship Supplement
Additional topical prayers are found in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (pp. 72–87) and All Creation Sings (pp. 46–55), as well as in other resources provided in print and online at sundaysandseasons.com.
Crafted intercessions for every Sunday and festival are provided in the Sundays and Seasons worship planning guide published in-print and online by Augsburg Fortress. Further assistance for composing prayers of intercession can be found here: Resources for Crafting Prayers of Intercession
Prayer Ventures, a daily prayer resource, is a guide to prayer for the global, social and outreach ministries of the ELCA, as well as for the needs and circumstances of our neighbors, communities and world.
