{"id":2629,"date":"2008-11-03T10:41:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-03T10:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/prayer-before-an-election.html"},"modified":"2008-11-03T10:41:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-03T10:41:00","slug":"prayer-before-an-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/prayer-before-an-election.html","title":{"rendered":"Prayer before an election"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Lord God,
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
as the election approaches,
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
we seek to better understand the issues and concerns that confront our city, state, and country,
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
and how the Gospel compels us to respond as faithful citizens in our community.
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
We ask for eyes that are free from blindness
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
so that we might see each other as brothers and sisters,
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
one and equal in dignity,
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
especially those who are victims of abuse and violence, deceit and poverty.
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
We ask for ears that will hear the cries of children unborn and those abandoned,
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
men and women oppressed because of race or creed, religion or gender.
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
We ask for minds and hearts that are open to hearing the voice of leaders who will bring us closer to\u00a0your Kingdom.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
We pray for discernment
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
so that we may choose leaders who hear your Word,
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
live your love,
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
and keep in the ways of your truth
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
as they follow in the steps of Jesus and his Apostles
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
and guide us to your Kingdom of justice and peace.
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
We ask this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Amen.
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

–From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lord God, as the election approaches, we seek to better understand the issues and concerns that confront our city, state, and country, and how the Gospel compels us to respond as faithful citizens in our community. We ask for eyes that are free from blindness so that we might see each other as brothers and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nPrayer before an election - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/prayer-before-an-election.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prayer before an election - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lord God, as the election approaches, we seek to better understand the issues and concerns that confront our city, state, and country, and how the Gospel compels us to respond as faithful citizens in our community. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}