The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

06/18/2026
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

Holy Lord, you have entrusted us with your life giving word, your truth, which frees us from the dissonant voices that distract us from your divine design for us and for your creation.

Teach us that we need not try to please people, but rather to purify our hearts that they would please you and prove faithful in any test you lay before us.

Keep us from using flattery to satisfy our greed, or masking our true selves to gain the favor of those in power over us. God, you alone are our witness. From you alone should we seek approval.

The strength you have granted us to serve you is sufficient. May we lean on you in these days and receive the encouragement, comfort, and inspiration to live lives worthy of you. Like children guided by a loving parent, may we depend on your grace alone to see us through the challenges we face.

In the power of your name we pray. Amen.

1 Thessalonians 2:4–7, 12

Thought of the Week

The Divine Wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it.

—Frederick W. Robertson

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