The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

06/30/2026
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

Holy God, author of our lives and source of our many blessings, may we, in gratitude, take time to reflect on the many men and women who came to this land over 250 years ago with a vision of freedom and a commitment to justice.
 
We pray that the blood they shed and the hope for which they toiled, all to establish the Republic on these foundational principles, would inspire in each of us our full measure of devotion to this Nation.
 
For out of many, one––the many people, many ideas, many voices that join together before You in the founding of this Nation, so that the sacrifices they made would inspire the generations to follow to do likewise.
 
You have told us what is good. In their service to You, they have left us both a legacy and a challenge: To bear faithfully our responsibility to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with You.
 
Bless then our history and its sacred memory. Sanctify our celebration of our Nation's birth, that we would receive the inheritance of Your blessing with humility, gratitude, and sincere devotion to Your divine providence in our day.
 
Preserve, oh, Lord, these United States, and keep this country in Your care for the years to come.
 
In Your sovereign name we pray.  Amen.

Thought of the Week

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Law of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 


The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

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