Lord, teach us how to be an instrument of your peace
among our colleagues during the coming year;
where there is discord, let us sow harmony;
where there is injury, comfort and understanding;
where there is doubt, faith in how you called us to our disciplines;
where there is despair, hope in the imperishable rewards you have promised us;
where there is darkness, light through the integrity of our scholarship;
where there is sadness, joy in each day we are given to serve you.O divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek respect from our students
when we see them again, but to earn their respect for us by how we honor you
to be only heard as to hear,
to present knowledge as to convey understanding,
to be considered wise as to teach wisdom.
For it is in giving of ourselves that we receive the joys of our profession,
it is in the way we teach that we are effective in our teaching,
and it is through our caring that we are witnesses to eternal life through Christ.
I have to add this here: the prayer of Johannes Kepler, quoted from The Harmony of the World:
If I have been enticed into brashness by the wonderful beauty of your works, or if I have loved my own glory among men, while advancing in work destined for your glory, gently and mercifully pardon me; and finally, deign graciously to cause that these demonstrations may lead to your glory and to the salvation of souls, and nowhere be an obstacle to that. Amen.
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