Spiritual Practices for the Inauguration of Barack Obama

Like millions of people around the world, we are excited about the moment in history we find ourselves in. The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States is about more than the first African-American president, more than a response to the clarion call to change the way the United States operates at home and abroad. It a time for all of us to step up and assume responsibility for effecting a shift in consciousness and commitment. Since the beginning of his campaign, Obama has repeatedly emphasized one thing: it was and is not about him. It's about us. The chant is not "Yes He Can" but "Yes We Can."

Let the presidency of Barack Obama be a time for our engagement in government, wherever we live. Let it be a time for service through our work and volunteerism in our community. Let it be a time for advocating for the poor, the forgotten, and the marginalized. Let us do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. In other words, let this be a time for spiritual renewal and practice.

To get you started we've collected some of our practices and prayers and found links to other websites with inauguration features. We begin with a practice for both strength and protection. It is one we can do for ourselves — and then revise slightly as a prayer for President Barack Obama.

Circle Yourself in God's Love and Protection

In Scotland, early Christians had a “ritual of encompassment” in which they called upon God for support and protection. People would imagine that they were drawing a circle around themselves using a large compass. They would say these words: “The compassing of God and his right hand/Be upon my form and my frame.”

We have adapted this spiritual practice as a morning ritual of “putting on the Spirit.” Here are the steps:

• With both hands, making circular movements, brush over your feet and pray that God will help you stay on the spiritual path today.
• Pass your hands over your legs, hips, stomach, arms, and chest while saying, “Bless my body that it may be a fit vehicle for serving others.”
• Put your hand over your heart and ask for an openness to others in love.
• Touch your shoulders and ask God to give you the strength to shoulder all your responsibilities.
• Hold your head in your hands and pray that you will use thought and imagination wisely.
• Circle over your ears asking God to help you truly listen, and circle your eyes asking that you see clearly.
• Finally, touch your lips and pledge that your words will not cause harm and that they will continually express your love and compassion for all of God’s creation.
• Now imagine yourself inside a large circle of God’s love.

Now repeat the exercise imagining that Barack Obama, or any other world leader, is standing in your place. Realize that you, Obama, your community, your nation, and your world are in a large circle of God's love.

Here are some more spiritual practices for the inauguration and afterwards.

• Pray for Barack Obama and other world leaders. Click here to see a Gallery of Prayers for Our Leaders.

• Watch the video of the invocation at the "We Are One" Concert for the Obama Inauguration by the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson

• Read and use an inclusive inaugural prayer for President Barack Obama.

• Read about some of the many examples of spiritual activism taking place around the inauguration.

• Study Memos to Obama written by religious leaders from Tikkun magazine and write letters supporting key ideas to the new administration.

• Send us other examples of spiritual responses to the inauguration, and we'll try to add them to this list.