Prayer For Obama
Life is but a stopping place,
a pause in what's to be,
a resting place along the
road to sweet eternity.
We all have different journeys,
different paths along the way,
we all were meant to learn some
things, but never meant to stay.
Our destination is a place
far greater than we know,
for some, the journey's quicker,
for some the journey's slow.
And when the journey finally ends,
we'll claim a great reward,
and find an everlasting peace,
together with the Lord.
May you always walk in sunshine
and God's around you flow,
for the happiness you gave us,
no one will ever know.
It broke our hearts to lose you,
but you did not go alone,
a part of us went with you,
the day God called you home.
A million times we needed you,
a million times we've cried.
If love could only have saved you,
you never would have died.
The Lord be with you and
may you rest in peace.
Jesus, Almighty King of kings,
You Who obeyed Your Father to the end,
Teach me the meaning of obedience.
My soul burns to comply to Your Will,
Striving to charm Your Divinity.
While my worldly nature seeks one way,
My spiritual nature seeks another.
Bless me with the strength to obey,
That my soul may subdue both natures,
Blending them as a fair aromatic bloom.
I always seek favour in Your eyes,
To always obey You until my last breath!
We thank you for our Church, which we love in her beauty and her humanness
We thank you for the sacraments that bring you to us
That point to you
That transform us
We thank you for the saints who intercede on our behalf
We thank you for being the creator of this world which is precious beyond all words
We thank you for becoming human and knowing what it is to be one of us
We thank you for becoming spirit and coming to us when more than one of us
Is gathered in your name
Along with Father Thomas Merton, we pray that our desire to please you,
Does in fact please you, And that we hope
That we will never do anything apart from that desire
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
World without end
AMEN
Our Lord God
You are not a Democrat or a Republican
Nor a liberal or a conservative
You are not American or Chinese or Russian
Nor Catholic, or Jewish or Muslim
Nor Black, White or Latino
Nor are you poor or wealthy or gay or straight
You do not dictate a strategy to pursue an issue
You do not champion an ideology or particular church above all others
You are wider than all of our disputes and deeper than all of our meanness
As you told Moses on Sinai, your name is I will be as I will be
Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
We pray for God's protection for all around the world who are not free to practice their faith, including Christians who are persecuted, or who have been driven from their ancient homelands by unspeakable violence. (Applause.) And just as we call on other countries to respect the rights of religious minorities, we, too, respect the right of every single American to practice their faith freely. (Applause.) For this is what each of us is called on to do: To seek our common humanity in each other. To make sure our politics and our public discourse reflect that same spirit of love and sound mind. To assume the best in each other and not just the worst -- and not just at the National Prayer Breakfast. To begin each of our works from the shared belief that all of us want what's good and right for our country and our future.