Parents and guardians are keenly aware that children and youth are often attune to any anxiety in the air. And when the household, communal, national, and global anxiety is as thick as this dense COVID-19 fog, the effects on children and youth can be stifling (figuratively and literally!). Like all of us, they too take the anxiety into their bodies. We offer this prayer for all the young ones among us who are struggling physically or emotionally while seeking to cope to new norms brought about by this anxiety-producing pandemic. This is “A PRAYER FOR…CHILDREN AND YOUTH.”
Mark 10:14: “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.’”
Let us pray:
Mothering God, like a parent with open arms, you beckon children and youth to receive the very gifts of heaven available in your tender embrace. Hold the little (and not so little) ones in these anxious, dangerous hours of coronavirus. Give kids calm, give them comfort, give them the care they need to endure and thrive. We pray for children on poverty’s edge in need of nourishment; for teens missing their friends; for youth seeking to learn in this massive disruption to educational systems; and for all young (and not so young) ones among us who are sacred. May your promise of presence and blessing of love surround and keep us all, your beloved children. This we pray trusting in the invitation of Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Justin Lind-Ayres
Prayer for March 29, 2020