Baccalaureate Prayer

Here’s a prayer for a Baccalaureate service on graduation weekend. It was written by Brother Lawrence A. Whitney, LC., and posted on the Boston University Marsh Chapel website.

Prayer on Graduation Weekend

Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Eternal.
We pray today for our graduates here at [college or university].
We give thanks for their achievements.
We give praise for their wisdom and understanding,
and we ask you to guide them to hear the sound of the genuine in themselves,
that they may continue to excel in leadership, scholarship, and service;
that they may come alive to lives of fulfillment and joy,
and that they may prosper and flourish in their vocations.

We pray for the parents, families, and friends of our graduates:
We give thanks for their accompaniment to this point,
we give praise for their perseverance and dedication,
and we ask you to empower them
in a new manner of nurture and guidance,
that they may find ongoing joy and satisfaction
in the accomplishments of their graduates,
that our graduates may continue to find nourishment
in the traditions and values of their roots,
and that they together might enter into
a new manner of relationship in mutuality and partnership.

We pray for the faculty, staff, and administrators
who have guided this class of graduates throughout their years of study:
We give thanks for their leadership, scholarship, teaching, and service;
we give praise for their graceful presence and compassionate shepherding.
We ask you to empower them to persevere
in the ongoing work of forming, informing, and transforming
students at [name college or university],
that they may find ongoing fulfillment in teaching and guiding
as sources of inspiration for their scholarship;
that their striving for wisdom and understanding
may bear fruit in compassionate service of this community and the world,
and that future classes of graduates may attain
to similar and greater heights of achievement as those who graduate today.

We pray for the greater community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
We give praise for the great cloud of witnesses
who provided and provide vision
for this campus and community of learning, virtue, and piety,
and we ask you to inspire our hearts and minds
to pursue and attain to even greater knowledge and insight,
that the ordering of our society and its affairs might be improved,
that justice and mercy might prevail,
and that your glory may be known upon the earth.

In all of these things, we fulfill your command, O God,
and offer you all praise and glory this day.  Amen.

~ written by Brother Lawrence A. Whitney, LC., 2013. Posted on the Boston University Marsh Chapel website. https://www.bu.edu/chapel/2013/05/19/baccalaureate-prayers-2013/