The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

03/25/2026
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

We wait patiently for you, O Lord. Well, maybe not as patiently as we think, for rarely is there a day that passes when we do not find ourselves wishing things would speed up, that the answers we want would arrive, or that the situations we endure would pass quickly.

Incline your ear to our concerns and hear our petitions for your presence in our everyday issues and your peace in our lives.

Put a new word in our mouths – words that demonstrate our trust in your steadfast guidance, words that reveal our trust in your divine will.

For happy are those who trust in you, who do not turn to voices of pride and power, or to the false gods that promise easy fixes and short–term gain.

Throughout history, time and again, you have multiplied your wondrous deeds, deeds more numerous than the trials any or all of us have faced. Countless are your thoughts toward us, thoughts deeper and more sincere than the many prayers we have offered to you.

As we reflect on all that you are and all that you have done for us, may we give unto you all that holds us back from putting our hope in your deliverance.

In your merciful name we pray. Amen.

Psalm 40:1–5

Thought of the Week

When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy. Those Divine demands which sound to our natural ears most like those of a despot and least like those of a lover, in fact, marshal us where we should want to go if we knew what we wanted. He demands our worship, our obedience, our prostration... A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. But God wills our good, and our good is to love him. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want.

—C.S. Lewis

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