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17th ASSEMBLY
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Prayer for Brazil

February 23, 2022

In recent weeks there has been unprecedented rain north of the city of Rio de Janeiro, in Petrópolis Brazil. This has caused disruption to this centre of Brazilian culture and colonial history, including landslides that have claimed the lives of over 170 people and more than 100 people are missing. The Ibero-Latino National Conference invites the Assembly to pray for this tragedy in the midst of the turmoil and distress experienced in Brazil already as part of the pandemic.
 
Below, we offer prayers in English and Portuguese that you may wish to share in services. 
 
Querido Deus, 
Em meio da tribulação o seu povo clama a sua presença. Pedimos pelo seu socorro para este povo que está sofrendo neste momento. Oramos por sua mão de salvação que seja sentida lá entre eles. Oramos por a comunidade brasileira em Austrália, especialmente os do Estado do Rio de Janeiro que sentem a distância da família agora. Pedimos por sua mão de paz sobre eles. E abre as portas, Senhor; para os seus filhos e filhas lá entrar para oferecer o conforto do Espírito Santo a os que estão em tribulação. Em nome de Cristo, juntos oramos - Amém 
Dear God, 
Amidst turmoil your people call out for your presence. We ask for your help for the people who suffer at this time. We pray for your hand of salvation to be felt among them. We pray for the Brazilian community in Australia, especially those from the state of Rio de Janeiro who feel that distance to their family at this time. We ask for your hand of peace be upon them. And open doors, Lord, for your sons and daughters to enter and offer comfort in the Holy Spirit for those in turmoil. In the name of Christ, we pray together - Amen
Rev. Esteban Liévano
Chair of the Ibero-Latino National Conference

 

God of life, hope and resurrection,

Our heart aches and our tears join the torrents of water.

Absurdity is an inevitable part of existence; but who can account for the inexplicable? Reason doesn't have enough grammar to deal with it...Suffering cannot be finally explained, but we find meaning only in consolation. More than answers, our heart yearns for presence. Your name is Solace.

Teach us, God, to believe in the counterintuitive truth that "everything works together for our good". At sunrise this truth seems to shine brightly, but on stormy days it seems to fade away unceremoniously. But even so, give us the faith to believe in the impossible, the Abrahamic faith to believe "against all hope". After all, we can only truly believe in a God who knows the smell, color, texture and echoes of pain. Your name is Emanuel. 

May the same waters that carried bodies, breaths and ceilings, can also be a source of renewal, new beginnings and new lives. After all, we are all daughters and sons of the same and only source: the God who is the beginning, middle and end of all things. Your name remains Creator.

Rev Fernando Torres (from Rio de Janeiro)