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Let us pray:

Merciful God, we come before you this day asking for your blessing and guidance.

We know that you are always with us, that you are with those who wander in the wilderness and those who are convinced they have found their way.

So we ask you to be with us wherever we are this day.

Open our eyes, open our ears, open our hearts to new possibilities that we have not yet even imagined.

Spark inside us your divine creativity that we might find a way out of no way.

Guide us so that disagreements and deadlocks can be settled not merely by strength in numbers, but by seeking out the best way forward.

Almighty God, be present in this place.

Be present in the conversations, the discussions, the debates, guiding all to seek the common good.

Give them the courage of their convictions, yet keep their hearts open to new ideas and new ways.

Help us all in our lives to find ways to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you.

Give us eyes to see all those we meet – friend, stranger, even enemy – as your beloved children.

Remind us that they are all made in your image, and that the differences we see, the differences we create, the differences we think define us, are really not who we are.

We belong to you, and to one another, brothers and sisters in a family which stretches out across party lines, across state lines, across national borders.

May we never forget all that we have overcome, the progress we have made, but may we never be satisfied with justice for just some, with freedom for a select few, with hope for only a handful.

Lead us onward to a day when all the dividing walls have been broken down, not just in our laws but in our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

Bring us to the time when our fears will be overcome with peace, bring us to a time when our divisions will be erased with acceptance, bring us to a time when our hatred will be overcome with love.

Help us leave behind empty slogans, ancient prejudices, and all that separates us.

Bring us hope.

Bring us truth.

Bring us equality for all.

Help us move on to a day when no one will go hungry, to a day when no one lives in fear of violence or war, to a day when everyone can find an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.

Loving God, I pray a special blessing on this place, that you would raise up these women and men; renew their faith, hope, and love, rekindle the passion that first called them to serve, revive in them the vision of “what can be” beyond what merely is.

May each one serve faithfully as they have been called.

May we all be better citizens of this world which you have entrusted to us for a time, that we might be good stewards of your creation which we borrow from our children, our grand-children, and our great-grandchildren.

May they grow up in a world not divided by anger and hatred, but united one and all towards living together in peace.

Until that day, we ask that you would watch over the men and women of our armed forces.

They have freely chosen to serve, and for that we are thankful.

With their presence across the world we hope that they are able to help further the cause of peace without the need for violence.

With their very lives they seek to protect the lives of countless others.

Protect them, we pray, and keep them from all harm, guard them from all evil, and bring them home as soon as they safely can.

Be with their families, comfort them and give them peace of mind while they are apart.

We ask your blessing upon our president and all who advise him.

We ask your continued blessing upon our country and indeed upon the whole world.

Eternal God we lift these prayers before you, as well as all the unspoken prayers of our hearts which we bring before you now in this moment of silence… Hear all these prayers, we humbly pray.

AMEN.