Holy and merciful God, our Lord and our judge, how dare we approach Your altar, knowing that in these days of discord and disruption––and despite all our efforts to see our own way through this shutdown––what we have not done is reconcile ourselves one to another.
Long before any legislative disputes can be resolved, call us to account for our own attitudes and actions toward one another. When we come before You, sure and certain of our own righteousness, our steps expose our inmost and private disdain for the unity to which You have called us.
Though the chasm of our disputes seems deep and wide, help us to find meeting places where hearts and minds can convene and common ground can be cultivated.
Give us the courage to reach out, though we fear rejection; to initiate dialogue, though the response may be disdain; to get to the heart of an issue, though the feelings guarding it are deep and divisive.
If there is any way any or all can give a measure of kindness, diplomacy, and civility, reward that offering in good and equal measure in return, that Your blessing will relieve the burden those we serve are having to bear in these days.
Then let us approach Your throne for Your grace and Your guidance in our work.
In Your sovereign name, we pray. Amen.
In perplexities, when we cannot understand what is going on around us, cannot tell whither events are tending, cannot tell what to do, because we cannot see into or through the matter before us, let us be calmed and steadied and made patient by the thought that what is hidden from us is not hidden from Him.
—Frances Ridley Havergal
The Interfaith Staff Prayer Room is open for congressional staff to use for personal prayer and meditation. For questions – email StaffPrayerRoom@mail.house.gov