Prayer

O Lord, open my lips And my mouth shall declare your praise. For centuries, monks have mouthed these words as they begin their daily regimen of prayer in the pre-dawn hours. The Liturgy of the Hours -- Psalms and prayers recited at set hours -- fixed the rhythm of their day, from rising to rest. Also called the Divine Office, the prayers have for the most part been the preserve of Roman Catholic priests, deacons, nuns and brothers. But the Office is being discovered by Catholic lay people, such as those who gather every day for Morning Prayer at St. Clement Mary Hofbauer parish in Rosedale, or for Evening Prayer at St. Benedict parish in Southwest Baltimore.

The subject is religion. So, of course, somebody is angry. It was ever thus.Look at the hot spots around the world and see what they have in common. The Middle East. Bosnia. Northern Ireland.In these places, religion is often destiny. Every day we see people blow up other people in the name of their God, and it's hard for us to figure out why.But even America has its religious wars. They're usually fought in the relatively peaceful setting of the Supreme Court.In the most recent case, the court found that the traditional religious blessing at public high school graduation ceremonies is no longer legal.

WASHINGTON -- A spreading campaign to put prayer back in the public schools, by letting students decide whether to pray, made a new gain yesterday as a local judge ruled that the issue may be put to a vote of the people in the District of Columbia.Superior Court Judge Jose M. Lopez said the proposed ballot measure here -- the first of its kind in the nation -- was not clearly unconstitutional, so he was not obliged to keep it out of the voters' hands.The judge said the line between what is constitutional or unconstitutional on varying approaches to school prayer is "still gray."

A patriotic and religious spirit will permeate tomorrow's annual Prayer in the Park of Carroll County, a community event in which participants of all denominations ask for God's guidance as families prepare for school. "In light of 9-11, we asked what could we do that would be a more patriotic element," said Gary Grecco, event program director and executive director for Hampstead Youth for Christ. "It's not overkill, but it's going to be very tastefully done." The event begins at 6 p.m. in Westminster City Park and will focus on prayers for the safety and success of the new school year.

Prayer brought anything but peace to the House of Delegates yesterday.A Baltimore County minister's fire-and-brimstone Christian homily led to a hastily reversed decision to end the practice of inviting clergymen to deliver the prayer that traditionally opens the chamber's sessions.By late afternoon, House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. had disavowed the decision -- which an aide attributed to "miscommunication" -- but not before a tradition that is intended to inspire unity and reflection became a political football.

Mothers whose children played quietly in the background, men and women in business suits, and construction workers in jeans and T-shirts printed with "Property of the U.S. Prayer Force" came to Vietnam Memorial Park in Westminster yesterday to pray.As a chime tolled noon, the people of different backgrounds came together with one intent as they joined hands in prayers for peace and unity."We need to pray for this country," said Larry Owens, who spent his lunch hour at the gathering. "Prayer will turn it around."

WASHINGTON -- Whatever the merits of the prayer issue, President Clinton may have retired the cup for political ineptitude by sending his signal from Jakarta that he may be ready to go along with some kind of "voluntary" prayer in the public schools.At the most elementary level, the picture he projected was one of an embattled president caving in to Newt Gingrich and the conservative Republicans even before he was pushed -- thus reinforcing the reputation he has built in the last two years as a politician who can be rolled and a leader entirely too anxious to please.

WITH LAST week's court ruling on the Pledge of Allegiance, I immediately thought of two familiar names: God and Leonard Kerpelman. The two have had their uneasy public connection. But when a federal appeals court declared "under God" should be removed from the pledge recited every school day morning, I figured Kerpelman would cheer, and God in his wisdom would understand. "I thought the court's decision was encouraging, and the outcry against it has made me ill," Kerpelman, 77, was saying over the weekend.

As the Rev. Frank M. Reid III of Baltimore's Bethel AME Church takes the podium today to deliver the invocation at the opening ceremonies of George W. Bush's inauguration, he will address a nation deeply divided, still licking its wounds in the wake of a bitter election. "I haven't finished it yet," said Reid of his pre-inauguration prayer. "But if I was going to entitle it, it would be `A prayer for healing.'" "It refers to something that's been going on since 1972: the politics of entertainment instead of the politics of empowerment," he said.

In the warmth of the spring sun, mothers with babies in strollers mingled with workers on their lunch hour in a Westminster park yesterday. People knelt on the grass, sat in beach chairs or leaned against a sturdy tree. Some spread blankets on the ground while many stood. The gathering grew steadily as passers-by noticed the crowd praying and singing near the Carroll County courthouse, and then they, too, stayed to pray. About 150 people joined in the county observance of the National Day of Prayer at the Vietnam Memorial in Westminster.