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Summary
- 1 Timothy 2:1–4 asks Christians to pray “for kings, and for all that are in authority”; Jeremiah 29:7 told the exiles in Babylon to pray for the city of their captors.
- Short prayers cover a head of state, lawmakers, judges, local government, government employees, an election, a national crisis and peace between nations.
- Traditional prayers are quoted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (“For The President of the United States, and all in Civil Authority,” “For Courts of Justice” and “For Our Country”).
- Archbishop John Carroll’s prayer for the President, Congress, governors and judges is quoted from the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers, which dates it 1800.
- Hapgood’s 1906 Orthodox service book sets petitions for “the Ruler of the Land and for all the Authorities” in the litanies.
- Praying for a leader does not mean approving every policy: Peter told the council, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Deuteronomy 1:17; Ezra 6:8–10; Proverbs 21:1; 29:2; Jeremiah 29:7; Matthew 5:9, 44; Acts 5:29; 1 Timothy 2:1–4). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Morning Prayer, “A Prayer for The President of the United States, and all in Civil Authority,” pp. 17–18; Prayers, “For Courts of Justice,” pp. 35–36, and “For Our Country,” p. 36. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. “A Prayer for the Church, the Civil Authorities, etc.,” composed by Archbishop Carroll, pp. 56–57. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. Rubric for petitions for the Ruler of the Land, e.g. The Office of Grand Compline, p. 163. https://archive.org/details/ServiceBookOfHolyOrthodoxChurchByHapgood
- O’Donovan, Louis. “John Carroll.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03381b.htm
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