Prayer With A Little Help From My Friends

On Monday of this week I had the honor once more of delivering the opening prayer for a session of the U.S. House of Representatives as their Guest Chaplain.

Last week when I received the invitation I posted on Facebook a simple question:  If you if you had the opportunity to pray in 150 words for congress during this government shutdown, what would you say? 

I received numerous responses, some of which were (even though true) not suitable for public presentation.  The most thoughtful response came from my good friend and colleague Roy Howard who is Pastor at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Rockville, MD.  Thank you, Roy for providing imagery and phrases for the prayer given as written below:

God of Light and Life, our prayer today is simple. 
May the Eternal Spirit that embraces All Good deliver us from fear.
May the hearts, minds, and souls of the women and men 

of this House of Representatives elected to serve the people 

be released from fear into freedom. 

In freedom may they discover and re-discover 

what is already deep within themselves 

as humans created in Divine Image. 
May every conversation and deliberation of this day 

and days to follow be filled with

-compassion for the millions of people whose lives and livelihoods 

are affected by these decisions. 
-courage to compromise when necessary to sustain and provide 

for the well being of all people 
-humility to let go of ideological convictions 

when those convictions hinder the common good. 
- and clear vision to see beyond narrow agendas 

toward a nation filled with promise 

to be a beacon of light for all people. 
Amen

Even though the prayer was written for Congress, in the end it is a prayer for fearless freedom, compassion, courage, humility, and clear vision in each of our daily lives.

Today's is the 100th One Eternal Presence post and this week marks the two year anniversary of One Eternal Presence as a weekly blog.  My thanks go out to each of you who read them, comment, and share with friends.  

To help me celebrate this milepost, take a minute and forward today's post to 10 friends who you think might enjoy getting them weekly.