World Prayers for Oct. 18-24: India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka

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Indian women and children bundle grain stalks after the harvest. Margaret W. Nea for 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 Oct. 18-24: India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka

When everything around seems to be collapsing into injustice and chaos
Creator God, teach us to love you
and to recognize that you hold the earth gently in your hands.
When we do not know just what to do and where to turn,
teach us to trust your wisdom,
so that we can discern your presence in events around us.
When we become unforgiving and vindictive,
teach us to grasp your tenderness,
and forgive us for all we do wrong.
When violence, fear and hatred seem to overtake us,
teach us to receive your compassion,
and steer our lives in the ways of justice and peace.
When we think we can go it alone,
teach us to depend on your grace,
so that with patience and persistence we can transform the world.
But most of all,
teach us to appreciate your goodness,
for in you we have new life!
(Aruna Gnanadason, India, WCC coordinator for Justice, Peace and Creation)

Percentage of the population of these countries living below the national poverty line (2014 figures):

India: 21.9
Pakistan: 12.4
Sri Lanka: 6.7

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators as found in the 2015 Hunger Report.

Prayer is a central part of Bread for the World’s work. To learn more about how you can get involved with prayer at Bread, please go here.

Photo: Indian women and children bundle grain stalks after the harvest. Margaret W. Nea for Bread for the World.

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