A Prayer for Brown and RISD
REVEREND JANET COOPER NELSON
Chaplain of Brown University
Holy Embrace, sufficient to our every ache and sorrow,
Draw near.
We race headlong—striving to close the academic year,
Grasping fragments, filaments of little lives as well as of the magnificent life we share.
Re-member us.
Be the heart that beats within us—the steady pulse that can calm our frantic, fretful soul.
Rest our weariness and invigorate our capacity for hope.
Give voice to our gratitude for the love of friends and family; for the gift of worthy work;
for the privilege of learning and instruction with which Brown surrounds us.
May we honor all whose prayer and work create our good, —
all who give their lives for our learning.
May we again find joy in sweet accomplishment—our own and all whose labors we witness.
May we, strengthened by Your Spirit, find courage to renew our commitment to build
justice, to practice compassion—on College Hill, and to the ends of the earth.
Strengthen the ligaments of love that knit us together—the Brown and RISD family,
That together we may be, Ever True, a bright blessing
In the life of the world you love, always.
Amen.
Spring 2015
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