A Prayer for a President

Last month I was honored to be asked to offer an invocation at the inauguration of Kathleen Dougherty as the president of Marietta College. Kathleen was very grateful, and several of my colleagues (of different religions and no religion) approached me later to express their appreciation for the prayer. For that reason, I thought the text was worth sharing on this platform.

God, our help in ages past.

God of Abraham and Sarah, of Jesus, of Muhammad and all prophets, peace be upon them.

We praise you, our creator and source of all light and truth.

We thank you for the high calling of being a community of teaching and learning.

We thank you for the students and their families who have chosen Marietta College as a place to learn and grow into well rounded and informed workers and citizens and compassionate human beings.

We are in awe of the great privilege we have been granted as faculty and staff of Marietta College—that our students have entrusted us with their resources, their attention, their effort, and their precious, precious time. Help us always to regard that trust as sacred.

We ask for your grace and mercy for when we as individuals and a community fall short of our high calling. Help us all to learn from our mistakes, and show the same grace and mercy to others that you have shown us.

We ask for your blessings on this presidential inauguration. We ask for your blessings on Kathleen, that she may find her calling here to serve you, her colleagues, and our students. Help us as faculty, staff, and students to support her in her calling. So that she may be a blessing to us, and we may be a blessing to each other, to the Marietta community, and to the world.

Here our prayers, merciful God, because we ask them in your name, Amen.