The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

04/22/2026
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

Make us mindful, O Lord, of your presence in this place and in every corner of our lives. And if, in discovering you in our midst, we find ourselves apprehensive or ashamed, remind us of your love that allows us to approach you just as we are, with all our faults and foibles. Your perfect love casts out all reason to fear you. Make us perfect in your love.

At the same time, let us not confuse your favor as blanket approval for anything we may be inclined to say or do. As righteous as we may think we are, may we hold on to a healthy fear of the standard of holiness by which you measure us.

In this fear may we find wisdom—a wisdom that acknowledges our utter dependence on your grace and guidance in the time you have given us, and our responsibility for the authority you have entrusted to us.

Grant us, then, the knowledge that leads to insight, that the effectiveness of this day will be multiplied by your counsel, and the work we set out to do would reveal your merciful hand in our lives.

In the boldness you grant us to call on your name, we pray.

Proverbs 9:10–11
1 John 4:18

Thought of the Week

Though with our limited understandings we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we cannot but believe, that he who made the world still governs it.

—Abraham Lincoln

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