I have struggled to know how to pray for the man who is currently the President of our United States. In my discouragement and dismay at his lack of respect for the truth, his treatment of other people, and his policies which seem to undermine the long-held goal of our nation to offer “liberty and justice for all,” my prayer has been a simple, “God, please stop him.” And then I usually add a rather vague prayer for his body, mind, and soul.
Last evening, I came across this blessing/prayer from John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us.” It is a prayer which I will pray often in the days ahead, especially as we as a nation confront the pandemic that has stretched across our world. I hope you will find this prayer helpful as well.
FOR A LEADER
May you have the grace and wisdom
To act kindly, learning
To distinguish between what is
Personal and what is not.
May you be hospitable to criticism.
May you never put yourself at the center of things.
May you act not from arrogance but out of service.
May you work on yourself,
Building up and refining the ways of your mind.
May those who work for you know
You see and respect them.
May you learn to cultivate the art of presence
In order to engage with those who meet you.
When someone fails or disappoints you,
May the graciousness with which you engage
Be their stairway to renewal and refinement.
May you treasure the gifts of the mind
Through reading and creative thinking
So that you continue as a servant of the frontier
Where the new will draw its enrichment from the old,
And you never become a functionary.
May you know the wisdom of deep listening,
The healing of wholesome words,
The encouragement of the appreciative gaze,
The decorum of held dignity,
The springtime edge of the bleak question.
May you have a mind that loves frontiers
So that you can evoke the bright fields
That lie beyond the view of the regular eye.
May you have good friends
To mirror your blind spots.
May leadership be for you
A true adventure of growth.
from the slow lane 