Bread for the World believes prayer is central to the work of ending hunger by 2030. Hunger happens in every corner of the world. In this blog series, we will provide a prayer for a different group of countries each week and their efforts to end hunger.
This prayer series will follow the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, a list compiled by the World Council of Churches that enables Christians around the world to journey in prayer through every region of the world, affirming our solidarity with Christians all over the world, brothers and sisters living in diverse situations, experiencing their challenges and sharing their gifts.
We will especially be lifting up in prayer the challenges related to hunger and poverty that the people of each week’s countries face. In prayer, God’s story and our own story connect—and we and the world are transformed. In a prayer common to all of us—the Lord’s Prayer/the Our Father—we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This line from this prayer can also be a prayer for the end of hunger.
We invite you to join Bread in our prayers for the world’s countries to end hunger. And we encourage you to share with us your prayers for the featured countries of the week or for the end of hunger in general.
For the week of March 6 – 12: Andorra, Austria, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and Switzerland
God of all nations, we praise you for the majestic and tranquil beauty of these countries — for snow-capped mountains and idyllic green valleys. We thank you for the leaders in the Church that Switzerland has produced, both in centuries past and today. Strengthen the work of the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, and other church organizations, the YMCA and YWCA, all with offices in Geneva. We thank you for the witness to peace, diplomacy, and humanitarian work that Switzerland also has provided for decades. We ask you to also strengthen the work of international secular organizations that work in these areas — especially the United Nations and its many agencies and the Red Cross in Geneva. May that city and its residents from around the world continue to foster peace among nations and peoples as they continue to host to formal and informal peace talks. May the annual World Economic Forum that takes place annual in Switzerland remember people around the world who are hungry and poor, and may the people who speak at the event, those who have tremendous power and influence in our world, work more for a world in which the marginalized are at the table.
O Lord, we know that these countries enjoy great wealth but that not everybody benefits from it. We pray for people who struggle with poverty, particularly new refugees, immigrants, workers in the tourist industry, and expatriates. We pray that governments and private corporations will use this wealth wisely for the benefit of all peoples, both in their own countries and around the world. We pray that the common resources will be used toward the end of hunger and poverty in our world. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Percentage of the gross national income of these countries that goes toward poverty-focused development:
Andorra: Not available
Austria: 0.26
Liechtenstein: Not available
Monaco: Not available
San Marino: Not available
Switzerland: 0.49
United States: 0.19 (for comparison)
Source: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Prayer is a central part of Bread for the World’s work. Learn more about how you can get involved with prayer at Bread.
