The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

04/28/2026
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

God of grace and God of glory. You have told us to hate evil, love good, and maintain justice in the courtrooms of our daily decisions. How quick we are to resort to acts of violence, when common virtues should hold sway over even our most visceral discord.

You have warned us that every earthly realm divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household rent by internal conflict will not stand. And yet our impulse for contest seems to grow ever stronger, outpacing even the simplest act of common courtesy.

Cure thy children's warring madness. Bend our will from all that does not promote your peace. From all that feeds our pride, toward your control.

Call us out when we unleash our desires for things not of your design, and pursue instead that which seems to feed our appetites, but, in the end, only starves our souls.

Grant us your wisdom. May it be the only weapon we ever wield. Grant us moral courage. May it be our true aim, that we would attain your will.

Let the gift of your salvation be our portion as we seek to serve you in the living of these days.

In your eternal name we pray. Amen.

Amos 5:14–15
Matthew 12:25
"God of Grace and God of Glory"
Author: Harry Emerson Fosdick (1930)

Thought of the Week

There is no patent recipe for getting good citizenship. You get it by applying the old, old rules of decent conduct, the rules in accordance with which decent men have had to shape their lives from the beginning… fundamental precepts put forth in the Bible and embodied consciously or unconsciously in the code of morals of every great and successful nation from antiquity to modern times.

—Theodore Roosevelt

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