On this 35th day of our 40 Days of Prayer for the Healing of Our Nation, December 8th, our prayer comes from Kirk Vandezande, a member of Christ Church in La Plata who happens to live and work (and belong to a local church) in Toronto, Canada. Kirk writes by way of introduction:

I heard a sermon about pride some 37 years ago. What the Rev. Ross Wright preached that day has stuck with me ever since:  "Pride does not grow well in the soil of thanks." So I pray today for a country and its people, many of whom have lost a taste for the fruit of thankfulness, and who have forgotten the lesson of the Greek word πραΰς (pra-oos) translated at Mt 5:5 as "meek," though it might better be rendered "gentle" or "steady under pressure."

The prayer follows.