World News This Week In Prayer - Thurs., March 11, 2010

Let us pray using the words of Frederick William Faber (1814-1863) to
remember that:
    "There's a wideness in God's mercy,
    Like the wideness of the sea;
    There's a kindness in His justice,
    Which is more than liberty."

In this time in which the world turns its attention to women, as we celebrate the International Women's Day, may our prayers take focus from the needs of women around the globe.

We know flood and drought and earthquake disproportionately affect women and children. As mudslides beset Uganda and as earthquakes demolish Haiti and Chile, women and children will die first for lack of clean water, for lack of food, and for lack of safety. We pray for kindness far greater than liberty in the justice of governments and of individuals. We celebrate small victories as disaster relief operations introduce special attention to the needs of women and girls in their work.

Without gainsaying the pain and suffering implied in the missing women - the millions named by Amartya Sen (Nobel Prize in Economics, 1998) as selectively aborted, medically neglected, politically and personally abused - we pray with both joy and astonishment that Korea now has nearly natural sex ratios, a reversal of cultural and regional patterns.

Without denying the grief occasioned by the deaths of women in childbirth at a rate of about one per minute, we pray with gratitude for our own mothers and for all mothers. In a world where too many girls, whose bodies are not mature enough for safe pregnancies, are married off and impregnated, we pray for so many things - better laws and leaders, more midwives, funds and facilities to manage risky pregnancies and to repair fistulas and other damage. Most of all we pray for bravery in ourselves and others to speak up for the value of women.