Here’s a graduation prayer written by Dr. Tom Cheatham for graduation at Mississippi State University in December 2006.
A Prayer for Graduates
God, what a great and joyous night this is. It’s graduation, marker of success in college, the commencement of a new era in life. Let’s get out of here!
God, what a lousy and sad night this is. It’s graduation, and we’ll never pass this way again; it feels like something is dying inside. Why do we have to leave?
What do we do now? And what are you going to do? We’re on this boundary between now and not yet, and we need help to sort out the feelings, the what if’s and the why not’s, the grief and the giddiness.
Lead us then into the mystery of this time and help us embrace it; teach us the power of this thin place where heaven and earth meet and in the passing of the old something new is being created. Make this night a thermocline of grace and amazement, where surface gives way to depth, and we know what you might do in and among us.
Go with us, God, when we leave this place. Go with us: goad us into tomorrow, guide us when we’re lost, grab us with your strong hand when we’re about to fall off the precipice of wrong choice, and grant us your peace so we may go confidently on this footsore and sacred journey of our lives.
Glory to you in heaven and on earth. Amen.
— written by Dr. Tom Cheatham, and posted on The Connection blog. http://theconnection08.wordpress.com/
For more graduation prayers and litanies, click on Graduation Prayers in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page.
