The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

09/11/2025
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

Holy and eternal God, we come to you on this auspicious day ––  a day of grief, a day of confusion, a day of consternation.

We reflect on the horrific moments of 9/11, when the country was assaulted by evil’s wicked hand, only to continue in anguish when confronted with the senseless violence of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the simultaneous attack on high schoolers in Colorado even just yesterday.

Gracious God, receive the agony that resides in the depth of our hearts and call up within us an even deeper desire to respond to these tragedies, not with words of animus or rancor that only deepen the divide, but to speak into these days as representatives of your peace.

Remind us again that our days are short, but our lives are in your hands, and you call us to live even these days as unto you.

Inspire us now to lead our communities toward more civil dialogue, to turn the temperature down but to rise above the animosity and claim the redemption that can only be found in you.

We turn to you with all that we are, as we are, that you would use us to proclaim your peace.

It is in the strength of your name I pray. Amen