The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

11/29/2024
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits. May we, in our innermost being, praise God's holy name.

For You, O Lord, have graced us with the richness of our lives and the bounty of friendships. You have presented us both opportunities and challenges, providing for us the privilege to serve one another and the honor to enrich the lives around us. In all these things, we give thanks.

Grant us the patience to appreciate the passage of time, the humility not to see ourselves as greater than we are, but to find the grace within us to receive the mentorship of those who have gone before, the counsel of friends and colleagues who see things that we can't see, that we may demure to the wisdom You reveal to us every day of our lives.

Continue to bless those whose lives exemplify the ultimate service to You and to this Nation, the men and women who stand the watch on the days we rest, that we may enjoy the liberties You have afforded us and the freedoms You have allowed this country.

We pray to You, standing on the noble traditions this body seeks to uphold, sure of Your abiding protection. Amen.

Thought of the Week


Fear God in the true sense of the word means to love God, respect God, honor God, and all of this can only be done by loving your neighbor, treating him justly and mercifully, and in all ways endeavoring to protect him from injustice and cruelty, thus obeying, as far as our human frailty will permit, the great immutable law of righteousness.  

—Theodore Roosevelt

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