A Summer Prayer for Children

Note: In June, the world observes several days that remind us of children who need our solidarity through prayer and advocacy in the days and months ahead:

• June 4th is International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression (UN)
• June 12th is World Day Against Child Labor
• June 20th World Refugee Day
• June 26th International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

We are grateful for the summer months ahead,
And grateful for the summer joys
and the laughter of the children
in our families, our schools and our parishes.
Bless our children during these next months;
may they grow in grace through play and picnics,
camps and friendships, family visits and vacations.

We pray too for children in our global community,
Especially for children being scarred by the violence of conflict,
The horror of war, of life on the run,
And the violence of child labor.
For them, the summer holds no promise nor relief.

Bless our children during the months ahead,
All our children,
In Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East,
In Darfur, in every place where the sounds of guns and bombs
Continue to be heard and continue
To silence the sounds of children’s laughter and childhood dreams.
Bless our children in every country where children labor through long days
and never know the peace of economic security or freedom.

God of Grace,
May these children know comfort and healing, through Your compassion
And through our efforts to bring peace and justice
To the global village we all call home.
Amen.

--by Jane Deren
www.educationforjustice.org