O Lord, unless you build the house, its builders will have toiled in vain. Unless you watch over the city, in vain the watchman stands on guard.
Look with mercy upon this company of your children that our labors may be crowned by your grace. Help us to be diligent in the disciplines of our calling and to engage in them in the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. Bind us together through our common responsibilities and prevent by your grace the frictions of sinful purpose from destroying the unity of the body of Christ. Give us the spirit of forbearance with one another, teaching us to forgive one another, even as you also in Christ have forgiven us. Help us to do the duty which each hour and day demands of us, but grant us grace also to have a vision of the constancy of your will above the chances and changes of our mortal life. Let us not be tempted by our weakness to evade the tasks you have given us to do; nor be tempted by our strength to estimate ourselves too highly. Grant that your strength may be made perfect in our weakness and your mercy purify what we have corrupted. O Lord, rule and overrule our affections and wills, that your kingdom may come, even through the confusion of human passions, and your will be done despite the unruly affections of men.
Look with mercy upon the peoples of the world, so full both of pride and confusion, so sure of their righteousness and so deeply involved in unrighteousness, so confident of their power and so imprisoned by their fears of each other. Have mercy upon our own nation, called to such high responsibilities in the affairs of mankind. Purge us of the vainglory which confuses our counsels, and give our leaders and our people the wisdom of humility and charity. Help us to recognize our own affinity with whatever truculence or malice confronting us that we may not add to the world’s woe by the fury of our own resentments. Give your Church the grace in this time to be as a saving remnant among the nations, reminding all peoples of the divine majesty under whose judgment they stand, and of the divine mercy of which they and we have a common need.
