Saint Mary's School News

Holy One, you know our hearts.

It was you, O God, who created this beautiful land; who sustained our nation through times of division and reconciliation, unrest and quietude, war and peace; who brought us thus far on the way to becoming a more perfect union.

On this day we return to you once again, with sadness in our hearts and tears in our eyes. We need you, all of us – we need your wisdom, your guidance, your justice, your strength.

Help us remember just who and what we are called to be. Purge our selfishness and hatred. Restore in us our highest loyalties as they should be, and not as they currently are. We repent of our tendency to value and heed political party or candidate or elected official above the integrity of the Republic itself. Remind us, O Lord, that we are better than this.

Create in us clean hearts, O God, and restore our dignity, that we might go forth from this moment in truth and righteousness: as Americans first, as partisans later; and as the united People of God, above all. Amen.

This prayer was written by Saint Mary's Chaplain, the Rev. Maggie Stoddard, and prayed with the campus community in our Epiphany Chapel, Jan. 7, 2021.