The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

03/20/2026
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

Holy Lord, we pray that when the storms of life arise, as they inevitably do, that we will look to You, the God who rules the seas and causes the winds to blow, who stills the tempest, and we ask that You would speak a word that would arrest the gusts that threaten to overtake us.

When we witness Your power, when we realize the extraordinary miracles You perform, may we not respond in fear, frightened that Your omnipotence will expose us to a future only You can control.

When we realize that all of life, our lives, are subject to Your authority, may we yield ourselves to Your divine will. In so doing, may we experience the calm You provide in our worries and the peace You offer in our conflict.

Reveal Your love to us, O Lord, in our unsettled lives that we would trust You to guide us through these turbulent times.

In Your sovereign name, we pray. Amen.

Matthew 14:23–26

Thought of the Week

Our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both the glory and honor beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache. 

—C.S. Lewis

Featured Events