January 21, 2021

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, reflecting on these words of President Biden, there is just 

• one prayer
• one benediction
• one poem
• one call
• one hymn filling my spirit on this deeply desired new morning!

Perhaps you would like to pray with these blessings too.

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Prayer:
Be with us, Holy Mystery of Love, as we dream together.
Help us under our new President to reconcile the people of our land,
restore our dream,
and invest it with peace and justice
and the joy that is the overflow of love.
To the glory of your name forever. Amen.

Father Leo O’Donovan – Inauguration Prayer

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Benediction:
This is our benediction, that from these hallowed grounds,
where slaves labored to build this shrine to liberty and democracy,
let us all acknowledge from the indigenous Native Americans
to those who recently received their citizenship,
from the African-American,
to those whose parents came from Europe and every corner of the globe,
from the wealthy to those struggling to make it,
from every human being regardless of their choices,
that this is our country as such, teach us, oh God.
Teach us to live in it, loving it, be healed in it,
and reconciled to one another in it,
lest we miss Kingdom’s goal.
Dear Glory, Majesty, Dominion and Power forever.
Hallelujah. Glory, Hallelujah.
And the strong name of our collective faith, Amen.

Reverend Silvester Beaman – Inauguration Benediction

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Poem: The Hill We Climb – Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman

And together we shall write an American story of hope, not fear.
Of unity, not division. Of light, not darkness.
A story of decency and dignity, love and healing,
greatness and goodness.

May this be the story that guides us,
the story that inspires us,
and the story that tells ages yet to come
that we answered the call of history,
we met the moment.
Democracy and hope, truth and justice,
did not die on our watch, but thrived,
that America secured liberty at home
and stood once again as a beacon to the world.
That is what we owe our forebears,
one another, and generations to follow.

So, with purpose and resolve,
we turn to those tasks of our time,
sustained by faith,
driven by conviction,
and devoted to one another
and the country we love with all our hearts.
May God bless America
and may God protect our troops.

(Inaugural Address – President Joseph Biden)

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Song: The Star Spangled Banner – Lady Gaga