The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Opening Prayer

04/01/2025
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben

Holy God, on this day of pranks and lighthearted fun, April fools that we are, may we not be so foolish that we overlook Your instruction and reject Your wisdom.

As we pull pranks and tease one another, may we not be so laughable that our silliness drowns out the voice of Your wise counsel.

Quick to wield our cleverness, may we not be so convinced of our own rectitude that we fail to see that what appears to be Your foolish plan is wiser than our own perceived insight.

Grant us the joy of laughter, as well as the contentedness of hearts grounded in You. Let us delight in a day of slap happiness, as well as the joy to be found in the wisdom You reveal to us every day.

For Your love for us is far more than a whim, but Your faithfulness endures in the craziest and best of times. We are all the happier for it.

In Your wise name, we pray. Amen.

Thought of the Week

I suddenly saw that all the time it was not I who had been seeking God, but God who had been seeking me. I had made myself the center of my own existence and had my back turned to God. All the beauty and truth which I had discovered had come to me as a reflection of his beauty, but I had kept my eyes fixed on the reflection and was always looking at myself. But God had brought me to the point at which I was compelled to turn away from the reflection, both of myself and of the world, which could only mirror my own image. During that night the mirror had been broken, and I had felt abandoned because I could no longer gaze upon the image of my own reason and the finite world which it knew. God had brought me to my knees and made me acknowledge my own nothingness, and out of that knowledge, I had been reborn. I was no longer the center of my life, and therefore, I could see God in everything.

—Bede Griffiths

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