The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

07/22/2026
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

Coming before you this morning, O Lord, our God, we do so knowing that there are many things we have done individually and corporately that deserve your judgment rather than your forgiveness. We confess that we have fallen short of your righteousness.

And yet we dare to come before you and ask you to incline your ear to us. Hear our prayers, prayers that reflect our deepest desires, our supplications which beg for your intercession in our work and in our world.

Yet despite our transgressions, we are bold to ask you to open your eyes to the troubles we see in our neighborhoods and in our nation and to intervene on behalf of your people.

Please know, O God, that we know that we do not present our request to you because we deserve your answer. It is not our righteousness that gives us a right to pray, but it is on the foundation of your great mercies that we stand before you.

O Lord, hear us. O Lord, forgive us. O Lord, listen and act and do not delay. For the sake of your name, the name in which we pray, Lord, answer our prayers.

Amen.

Daniel 9:18–19

Thought of the Week

Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. 

—Patrick Henry

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