World Prayers for July 24–30: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico

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Photo by Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World.

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 July 24 – 30: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico

Seed of life

Lord, in this world
you have sown the seeds of life
in the hearts of our daughters and sons,
seeds which are growing slowly and quietly,
seeds whose fruit is the strengthening of hope.
But weed seeds have also been sown.
Their fruit is sadness, sorrow and death.
They try to suffocate all efforts to build a different world.
We draw closer to you in prayer
so we can perceive these situations
which discourage and confuse, causing dejection.
Equip us to uncover and denounce evil
without hurting the lives of those sowing love and justice.
Fortify the weak stalks
so that hope and patience flower in us,
to follow you without ever halting our sowing.
(© Betty Hernández Carrillo, Mexico. English transl. Terry MacArthur © WCC.)

Percentage of the population of these countries living below the national poverty line:

Belize: Not available
Guatemala: 53.7
Honduras: 64.5
Mexico: 52.3

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators as found in the 2016 Hunger Report.

Prayer is a central part of Bread for the World’s work. Learn more about how you can get involved with prayer at Bread.

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