O God, gracious and
most wise, consider these students, your servants, your sons and daughters,
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world; called here now to do your
work.
Protect them, encourage
them, sustain and uphold them for the sake of your Son our Savior. Jesus, light of the world: may these students
see through your eyes. Jesus, Word of
God spoken as flesh: may your words be in their mouths.
Bless them with the gift of a joyful and living
faith: not too rigid to bend without breaking, but a full, supple, resilient
trust in Jesus, the Truth around whom all truths dance. Create in them a robust faith, a doorway that
welcomes the world God so loves, not a wall against it. Give them the mind of Christ, who did not
hold back, but went forth, and gave himself.
Out of time, worn
down, way late, bereft of sleep, overcut, past hope:
even then may they hear your call to love the truth, come what may; their
vocation the thirst to know.
Trouble them when
they are too sure, too quick to think they’re in the right. But restore those whose faith is weak. Comfort the lost, the sad, the
lonely; may the truth You are, great in mercy, humble in love, seek them out.
But make seekers of
the comfortable. Give them the courage to go the hard way. Bring them beyond themselves to what’s
strange and different, where you are waiting, O Lord of all, ever new.
Endow them with a
holy curiosity, an honesty that will not settle for what’s pat, shallow, safe
and false. Make them the hardest critics
of themselves. Make them best at playing fair, best at hearing those they know
are wrong.
Teach them to love
the questions as well as the answers.
Guide them to the seams where things don't quite fit, to the questions
no one has thought to ask or pushed aside, the problems still unsolved, to the
places where you, God of wonder, have more to teach them.
Be with them when
they are confused. Even within their
most secret doubts, you are with them, their secure anchor. Beyond whatever darkness they endure, you are
the light. Past all loss, you their true love.
Challenge them,
bother them, poke and prod them, surprise and shock them, O gentle Lord: do
what it takes to make faith grow. Shape
and craft their minds to trust in you.
Give them boldness in their thought, open their hearts; free their
imaginations. Let them never forget they
have nothing to fear; they are forever held by you, forever blessed.
Amen.