A PRAYER FOR LABOR

Monsignor George G. Higgins is a priest living in Washington, DC. He has devoted his life to securing justice for working people and the poor. As we celebrate Labor Day this year, I give you Msgr. Higgins' edifying prayer for Labor Day 1977.

"O God our Father, we thank you for our nation's 200 years of life and growth and for the Founding Fathers' inspired vision of liberty and justice for all. Make this our vision, too, and our common goal. Out of many nations, many people, you have made us one, though we are not yet fully one in heart and mind. May your spirit heal our divisions and disunity. Help us to respect and prize and share with glad acceptance the rich and various gifts of this great people that we may work together for the common good.

We thank you in particular for the contribution which the working people of this nation, whom we honor symbolically on Labor Day, have made to the welfare of their fellow citizens. The nation as a whole has been the beneficiary of their labor and their extraordinary skill. And the cause of freedom everywhere, both home and abroad, has been continually enhanced and, in these troubled times, is now the more secure because of their ongoing struggle to achieve their own basic human rights. We commend them especially for having struggled to secure the most fundamental of all rights, the right to organize and, through their own union, to bargain collectively with their employers for justice in the economic order and freely to petition their government for those reforms that only government can provide.

Many years ago the American Labor movement, in one of its earliest statements of policy, fixed as its goal 'nothing less than the complete richness of life, without limitation of any kind, the attainment of the complete human ideal, in all its economic, ethical and spiritual implications.' May the memory of the men and women whose achievements we honor on Labor Day and the example of their dedicated lives of service in the interest of justice and human dignity inspire us to be faithful to these high ideals in the years that lie ahead.

We ask you to bless our Chief Executive, the members of his Cabinet, our legislators, our judges and administrative officers. Theirs is a noble calling. May they exercise their constitutional authority with diligence, honor, and unimpeachable integrity and may we, the American people, accord them in turn our full cooperation.

Almighty God, our Father, you have charged us with the task of building on this earth at home where all nations may dwell in unity, with liberty and justice for all. We pray for peace and all that makes for peace, for the humility to see that there are ways other than our own, for the generosity to share the foods of this earth with those less privileged than ourselves, and for steadfast courage to overcome the barriers that stand in the way of peace and human solidarity."

In addition, please offer a prayer of gratitude for Msgr. Higgins. In his 85 years he has served all working people and has helped them in acquiring a voice in the workplace and in American society. May God continue to bless this great American hero abundantly!