A Prayer For Research

God of all Truth,
Maker of the Universe,
Keeper of all Knowledge,
You are the Maker of makers,
The Creator of creators,
The Builder of builders;

We gather here,
Together with each other,
Together with you,
Hungering and thirsting for righteousness,
And as we seek this righteousness,
In Part, through this advanced training,
We ask for your guidance and blessing;

We gather to learn and consume knowledge;
We gather to learn how to apply the knowledge we consume;
However, we gather to learn the sacred task of creating knowledge.

We come with our confidence;
We come with our insecurities;
We come with our wise assumptions;
We come with our foolish assumptions;
We come carrying beliefs that may be supported;
We come carrying beliefs that may be crushed,
And we enter into what is reserved for the very few
In this world,
In this history –
We come to create knowledge
We hope reflects truth,
We hope reflects Truth
For our own understanding and
For the understanding of the world.

Give us child-like curiosity,
Child-like imagination,
Child-like innocence,
As we take our hands and minds
And put them to the powerful and sacred tools
Of knowledge creation.

Give us maturity beyond our years,
Give us wisdom beyond our experience and observation,
Give us humility to match the courage needed,
To take our hands and minds
And put them to the powerful and sacred tools
Of knowledge creation.

Give us ears to hear
The knowledge creators who have gone before us,
Who have pushed the edge of knowledge out to where it is,
Who have pioneered and struggled in the uncreated
So we will walk simply where they labored,
Give us critical minds to discern
The knowledge created before us.
Give us humility to respect
The knowledge created before us,
While maintaining all the wild imagination
You have already set in motion within us.

Thank you for the privilege
To be a creation who creates.

Amen