Christian Pure

Prayers for Calm in a Storm: Bad Weather and the Storms of Life

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • Short prayers cover strong wind, thunder and lightning, flooding rain, an approaching hurricane, a frightened child, travelers, and the time after a storm.
  • Jesus calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee with “Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39); Psalm 107 says God “maketh the storm a calm.”
  • The 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s Litany prays “From lightning and tempest… Good Lord, deliver us” (p. 54), and the book has a prayer “For Fair Weather” (p. 40); the Catholic Litany of the Saints has the same petition.
  • Saint Barbara is popularly invoked in thunderstorms; the Catholic Encyclopedia says there is “no genuine historical tradition” about her life.
  • Prayers for the storms of life draw on Peter’s cry “Lord, save me” (Matthew 14:30) and an Orthodox hymn about “the sea of life.”
  • In severe weather, follow official warnings as well as praying.

Jesus stilled a storm on the Sea of Galilee with three words, “Peace, be still.” A prayer built on them: “Lord Jesus, you calmed the wind and the sea with a word. Calm this storm, keep everyone in its path safe until it passes, and quiet our fear. Amen.” The story is told in Mark 4:35–41. When a severe storm, hurricane or flood is forecast, follow the warnings as well as praying. Do what your local weather service and emergency…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Psalm 29:10; 46:1–3; 107:28–30; Isaiah 25:4; 43:2; Nahum 1:7; Matthew 14:30–31; Mark 4:38–39; John 14:27; Acts 27:25; Philippians 4:7). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
  • The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Prayers, “For Fair Weather,” p. 40, and “For a Person, or Persons, going to Sea,” p. 46; The Litany, p. 54. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
  • A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. The Litany of the Saints, p. 260. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
  • Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. Office at the Parting of the Soul from the Body, Canticle VI, p. 364. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
  • Kirsch, Johann Peter. “St. Barbara.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02284d.htm

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