Archbishop Wilton Gregory, Archbishop in Washington, D.C., and the first Black U.S. cardinal, will give the invocation at a covid-19 memorial at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Tuesday evening. President-elect Joseph Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris will be in attendance. The service, which is scheduled to take place at 5:30pm Eastern Time will feature 400 lights around the Reflecting Pool in D.C. to commemorate the nearly 400,000 who have died in the country of the coronavirus. Other cities and towns around the country are expected to participate with various kinds of light memorials. The lights in Holy Cross church (here in our parish) will be on from 5:30pm to 6:30pm Pacific Time. Join us at home for an hour of prayer for the well-being of our nation and the repose of the souls of all who have died from the virus.
At Wednesday’s inauguration, the invocation will be delivered by the Rev. Leo O’Donovan, a longtime Biden family friend and former president of Georgetown University. O’Donovan presided at the funeral Mass for Biden’s eldest son, Beau Biden. Delaware Rev. Silvester Beaman, from an African Methodist Episcopal church in Wilmington, will deliver the benediction. [An invocation is usually said at the start of an event, asking for holy intercession, a divine request for help and support. A benediction is a closing prayer at the end of a public event.] Prior to the Inauguration on Wednesday, the President-elect and his family will attend Mass at Washington’s St. Matthew Cathedral.
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Although it has been printed here before, the following is a prayer that was composed and delivered by Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore, for the Inauguration of George Washington:
“We pray you, O God of might, wisdom, and justice, through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with your Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to your people, over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality.
Let the light of your divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.
We pray for the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by your powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.
We recommend likewise, to your unbounded mercy, all our fellow citizens throughout the United States, that we may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of your most holy law; that we may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal. Grant this, we beseech you, O Lord of mercy, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.”
