Prayers
Lord of all, help us to be silent for a moment so we can hear the cries of girls and women, some loud, many muffled, enduring violence in every area of our global community.
Help us to take the time to reflect on the fact that the majority of human rights violations across your world are acts of violence toward women.
The roots of such hatred are deep and tangled, and justice is long overdue.
We ask Your help to act So we may become agents of transformation, willing to work to change systems and structures that have fostered and allowed such violence to continue, to this day, in the human community.
All humans, women and men, are made in your image and likeness, and have immeasurable dignity.
Help us, for a moment, be silent and still so we can recognise You in the faces of every girl and every woman.
Taken from Jane Deren https://educationforjustice.org/resources
I will proclaim your name to my sisters.
In the middle of the congregations I will give praise to you.
To the sisters who have been hurt by injustice, I will say
“Enjoy God, and he will give you what your hearts request.”
Good and loving Father, I thank you for the gift of life
and for letting me see your face
in the faces of each woman present at the United Nations,
who with one look or a smile say
“Come on sisters, let our voices be heard, and let our outcry get to God.
No more hunger, we want water, we need homes,
We want a decent job, we want to be loved.”
Angelica Juarez Montoya, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico (from Lifting Women’s Voices: Canterbury Press; 2009)
Prayers taken from The Mother’s Union Prayer resource