Prayers during a Pandemic: For those Celebrating Holidays

Our family is taking time daily to pray about the current global health crisis. Our prayers will likely reference the Christian tradition, but we’ve written with an ecumenical and agnostic audience in mind.

If you’d like us to pray for you, let us know. If you’d like us to write a prayer for you or for a concern you have and share it here, just ask. You don’t have to share your name if you don’t want to, and we won’t share it or any other identifying details about you here or elsewhere.

Today we pray for people experiencing sadness around Holy Week (for Western Christians who have already celebrated it, for Eastern Christians who celebrate it this week) and Passover (for Jews).

Today we pray for people who are experiencing sadness, grief, and loss around their sacred days and traditions. We pray for those who are finding joy in these moments, too.

We pray for those we don’t know and for those we do, including [names of people we know who are struggling with holidays, including ourselves].

We pray for those who miss celebrating with friends and family. We hope for them companionship across distance.

We pray for those missing their sacred spaces. We hope for them dignity wherever they are.

We pray for those who are unable to participate in tradition as they might want. We hope for them good memories of times past, inventiveness and assurance in this moment, and hope for future times.

We pray for those who feel disconnected from their own lives, communities, and traditions. We hope for them grace for themselves.

We pray especially for Christians and Jews around the world who have recently, are currently, or will soon celebrate holy days. We pray for them peace of heart as they engage these sacred days. We hold in our hearts those for whom these days are hard.

We are thankful for people of faith in our lives and in our communities. We are thankful for the rich traditions they share with us. We are grateful when we can share their stories, insights, art, and other traditions.