Popular Prayers
Cadet Prayer Used At West Point And The Citadel
O God, our Father, Thou Searcher of human hearts,
Help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth.
May our religion be filled with gladness and may our worship of Thee be natural.
Strengthen and increase our admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking,
And suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretence ever to diminish.
Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life.
Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong,
And never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.
Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy,
That scorns to compromise with vice and injustice
And knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy.
Guard us against flippancy and irreverence in the sacred things of life.
Grant us new ties of friendship and new opportunities of service.
Kindle our hearts in fellowship with those of a cheerful countenance,
And soften our hearts with sympathy for tho se who sorrow and suffer.
Help us to maintain the honor of the Corps untarnished and unsullied
And to show forth in our lives the ideals of West Point
In doing our duty to Thee and to our Country.
All of which we ask in the name of the Great Friend and Master of all.
Amen.
- Colonel Clayton E. Wheat, Chaplain, United States Military Academy, 1918-1926
An Evening Family Prayer
Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
For the love that unites us,
For the peace accorded to us this day,
For the hope with which we expect the morrow;
For the health, the work, the food and the bright skies
That make our lives delightful;
For our friends in all parts of the earth.
Amen.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Prayer For Generosity
Lord, teach me to be generous:
To serve you as you deserve;
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek to rest;
To labor and to ask for no reward
Save that of knowing I do your will.
Amen.
- St. Ignatius
Prayer For Our Nation
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance.
We know Your Word says 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that.
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will,
To open ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
- Written by Rev. Joe Wright, Popularized by Rev. Billy Graham and Paul Harvey