Lord of the universe
and of all Thy creatures on it:
As the Senate opens its session
on this early summer day,
give its Members the grace to see
that not their will,
not even the people’s will,
but Thy will is sovereign.
And if Thou grantest us the conviction
that Thy will reigns supreme,
grant us also, we pray Thee,
the ability to determine Thy will rightly
and to translate it effectively
in the tangled skein of world affairs.

Two things we know we need
if we are to succeed in this endeavor, O God.
We need the head to know
that the heart is not enough—
that though 3 billion human beings
on the face of this now small earth
desire with all their hearts to live in peace,
the awesome and final fireworks
of the nuclear holocaust
will be unleashed
unless the head instructs the heart
to supply the wisdom needed
to keep the peace.^[1] Earlier in the month in a widely publicized speech in East Berlin, on June 2nd, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev endorsed the idea for the first time of a treaty to ban atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. 

And equally do we need, O Lord,
the heart to know that the head is not enough—
that though 3 billion human beings know
to the very core of their cognitive selves
that nuclear warfare is suicidal madness,
this madness will transpire
some early summer or another day
unless the heart moves the head
to the boundary-crossing wisdom of compassion
which sees the 3 billion,
not as “we” and “they,”
but as an indissoluble and indivisible “us”
sojourning in Thy kingdom.

Head and heart,
may we be granted them,
that Thou may lift up Thy countenance upon us
and grant us peace.
Amen.