{"id":1502,"date":"2004-07-30T19:10:20","date_gmt":"2004-07-30T23:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/nateptest\/2004\/07\/30\/benediction-prayer\/"},"modified":"2004-07-30T19:10:20","modified_gmt":"2004-07-30T23:10:20","slug":"benediction-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/2004\/07\/30\/benediction-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Benediction prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

You probably didn’t hear this last night, with all the balloon popping
\nand such, but here’s the benediction prayer that Fr. John from the
\nPaulist Center offered.<\/p>\n

\n

Let us pray… <\/p>\n

God of all holiness, we have invoked
\nYour Spirit to guide these delegates in their work over the past four
\ndays. As we take leave of this convention, in the place where our
\ncountry’s quest for freedom began, words of liberty and equality for
\nall must not be left idly behind in this arena. We rely on You, O God
\nof strength and wisdom, to inspire these candidates, these delegates,
\nand indeed all citizens of this great nation to go forth and build a
\nstronger America and to work for respect, and accomplish peace around
\nthe world. <\/p>\n

By the power of Your grace, instill in
\nSenators Kerry and Edwards the fortitude to uphold the Constitution,
\nwhich promotes the dignity of every person and frees all people to
\nserve You as You have called them. Help these public servants to
\nsafeguard the common good; give them courage to live lives of
\nintegrity; inspire them to speak with a prophetic voice for the
\ndisenfranchised and disinherited; and when these candidates hear Your
\ncall, give them the strength and wisdom to say, “Send us.” <\/p>\n

By
\nthe power of Your grace, guide every citizen of our United States to
\ncherish all life. Help us to seek unity in diversity; give us the
\ncourage to embrace each person as our neighbor, regardless of gender,
\nrace, or ethnic origin, regardless of sexual orientation, religious
\ntradition, or age. Inspire us to support all families in their pursuit
\nof happiness; and when we hear Your call, give us the strength and
\nwisdom to say, “Send us.” <\/p>\n

By the power of Your grace,
\nremind us that Your love knows no national boundaries. Give counsel to
\nworld leaders so they may never again declare an unjust war; help all
\npeoples of the world overcome prejudice and poverty; inspire everyone
\nto work for justice so we may know true peace. And when we hear Your
\ncall, give us the strength and wisdom to say, “Send us.” <\/p>\n

Therefore,
\nO God, lover of us all, open our eyes to the bright future that is
\nbefore us! Give us the strength to labor with a lively faith. Send us
\nforth with a firm hope. Send us forth with a charity that knows no
\nbounds. Send us forth as one people, that we may realize the splendor
\nof Your creation now and forever. AMEN. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A couple of thanks and further links are available at http:\/\/www.paulist.org\/boston\/news\/articles\/dnc_benediction.htm.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You probably didn’t hear this last night, with all the balloon popping and such, but here’s the benediction prayer that Fr. John from the Paulist Center offered. Let us pray… God of all holiness, we have invoked Your Spirit to guide these delegates in their work over the past four days. As we take leave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[661],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deeencee"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5G3PH-oe","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}