A Prayer for Archbishop Nienstedt

Chris Wogaman, a Christian writer and supporter of C4ME-MN, has written the following prayer in response to Archbishop John Nienstedt's defensive and exclusive "Prayer for Marriage." The Archbishop's prayer, which is intended for use as part of the Prayers of the Faithful at Mass, was issued on Thursday, December 15. For many, it signifies a troubling escalation in the Catholic hierarchy's political activism around the proposed "marriage amendment" to the Minnesota state constitution.

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Heavenly Creator,

You have called us into many kinds of loving relationships, among which is that of marriage, a relationship limited to this mortal plane of existence, but not limited in its power to join two people together.

Help us to grow in those relationships that are life-giving in many ways, that animate our hearts and minds as well as parent our next generations, for these relationships bring us closer to you as well as each other.

God, we ask that you bring peace to the hearts of those who are troubled about the love that some people have for one another. Calm our defensiveness with your comforting Spirit, and enlarge our vision, for we can but see through a glass, darkly, the miracles of love you have empowered among us.

We pray through the strong name of Jesus, in whom is the life and light of all humankind. Amen.