A Blessing for Renewed Common Good

This week’s OEP is a prayer given to open the U.S. House of Representatives on September 10, 2015. I hope it will have meaning for you today.

I'm taking a little break from One Eternal Presence for a few weeks. In the mean time, each week I'm sharing one of the fourteen Opening Prayers for the U.S. House of Representatives I've had the honor and privilege to deliver through the years.  I'll be back after Labor Day.

As vacations and recesses draw to a close, we give thanks for the gift of rest and recreation afforded us while so many in our country and world have spent those same days in fear and suffering.

May we leave business as usual in the shadows of yesterday, seeking to shine with renewed purpose, inspired wisdom, and transformative action.

May every person associated with these Halls of power remember their calling as public servants to humbly hold the hopes, dreams, and trust of people from every walk of life in every State, city, town, village, and neighborhood of our country and world.

As numerous streams of opinion, interest, and need flow into the procedures, process, and decisions of this day and days ahead, may there be wisdom and patience to allow them to find their way to pools and ponds of peace, rivers of mercy, and eventually oceans of compassion and common good for all people. Amen.

Read the prayer here.

See C-span video here.

A Blessing of Possibility and Potential

This week’s OEP is a prayer given to open the U.S. House of Representatives on March October 7, 2011. I hope it will have meaning for you today.

I'm taking a little break from One Eternal Presence for a few weeks. In the mean time, each week I'm sharing one of the fourteen Opening Prayers for the U.S. House of Representatives I've had the honor and privilege to deliver through the years.  I'll be back after Labor Day.

Creator God, Eternal Presence, Spirit of Life in whom we breathe and live, we come into another day that has never been, a new day, an empty day waiting to be; its possibility and potential filled with only that which we bring to it. 

As we pause in this moment may we have the wisdom, humility, and grace to lay aside the fear, scarcity, pain, mistrust and violence that has consumed so many of our yesterdays. 

Where discord has been our nemesis, may harmony be our friend.
Where suspicion shades our perspective, may trust bring light to see clearly and know your Presence in ourselves, in others and in all Creation. 

This is our prayer. Fill us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self–control, so that these may be the gifts we bring to this day, to our work, our lives, our country, and our world.   Amen.

Read the prayer here.

See C-span video here.

A Blessing of Interdependence

 This week’s OEP is a prayer given to open the U.S. House of Representatives on March 18, 2013. I hope it will have meaning for you today.

I'm taking a little break from One Eternal Presence for a few weeks. In the mean time, each week I'm sharing one of the fourteen Opening Prayers for the U.S. House of Representatives I've had the honor and privilege to deliver through the years.  I'll be back after Labor Day.

We come today with thanks and gratitude for the eternal presence of God, known by many names, that is within, around, and throughout all creation.

May each person in the human family be reminded today in every breath we take of the Spirit that binds and connects us to one another. With every morsel or drop of nourishment taken into our bodies may we remember our interdependence with the soil, streams, seas, plants, and animals of Earth. As we gaze to the sky above may we allow the mysterious vastness of the unknown to stir our imaginations toward creative care of that which is known.

As citizens not only of Nations but also of the Earth itself, may we live this day and every day in harmony with all. And may this Spirit of harmony be that which guides the ideas, conversations, debates, and decisions of our Nation's leaders today and always. Amen.

Read the prayer here.

See C-span video here.

Blessing The Day

I'm taking a little break from One Eternal Presence for a few weeks. In the mean time, each week I'm sharing one of the fourteen Opening Prayers for the U.S. House of Representatives I've had the honor and privilege to deliver through the years.  I'll be back after Labor Day.

Today's prayer was given on February 4, 2010. I hope it will have meaning for you today.


In thanks and gratitude we breathe the life giving Spirit of a new day 
filled with creative potential and possibility.

As on the first day, may this day be "in the beginning."
May we see the goodness and abundance of creation.
May we embrace the name given to us, Human, – from the earth.

May we look into the eternal waters and see in our own reflections 
the image of the Name that cannot be named, 
the Eternal Living Presence we call by many names. 

May we see both the Human and Divine 
in ourselves and every other person. 
May we see the Eternal Presence of Life in all of creation.

May the Light of the first day be our guiding vision for every day 
particularly within the deliberations and decisions 
among the minds, spirits, and imagination of these chambers, 
leading us to see and respect the sacred dignity and worth of 
every one and every thing, everywhere.

Amen.

Read the prayer here.

See C-span video here.

August Recess

It's that time of year again! Time for me to take a little break from One Eternal Presence. 

In the past, during this time I've posted some previous OEP reflections. This year, each week I'm sharing one of the fourteen Opening Prayers for the U.S. House of Representatives I've had the honor and privilege to deliver through the years.  I'll be back after Labor Day.

Today's prayer was given on July 23, 2012. I hope it will have meaning for you today.


Creating God, we come together today in a simple prayer. 
May we be who we are created to be, reflections of your image. 
May we live as we know we should, as caretakers of creation. 
May we participate in the purpose of life, as companions to God and to one another. 
May we truly embrace the equality of humanity as ‘‘self–evident'' and know 
that just beneath the surface of disagreement, conflict, discord, and even violence and death, 
there is a deep river of grace, love, and forgiveness that truly binds us. 
May this stream of eternal presence be solace for any pain in our lives; 
but, more importantly, inspiration and hope of reconciliation and peace 
in personal relationships, in our Nation, and throughout the world.

May the deliberations and decisions of this day and all days 
take place in the spirit of common good, the spirit in which we are created.
Amen.

Prayer on House Chaplain's website.

See C-span video here.