Thou Knowest Who We Are

O Lord, our God! Thou knowest who we are: men with good consciences and with bad, persons who are content, and those who are discontent, the certain and the uncertain, Christians by conviction and Christians by convention, those who believe, those who half-believe, those who disbelieve.

And Thou knowest from whence we have come: from the circle of relatives, acquaintances, and friends or from the greatest lonliness, from a life of quiet prosperity or from manifold confusion and distress, from family relationships that are well ordered or from those disordered or under stress, from the inner circle of the Christian community or from its outer edge.

But now we all stand before Thee, in all our differences, yet alike in that we all are in the wrong with Thee and with one another, that we all must one day die, that we all would be lost without Thy grace, but also in that Thy grace is promised and made available to us all in Thy dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are here together in order to praise Thee through letting Thee speak to us. We beseech Thee to grant that this may take place in this hour, in the name of Thy Son our Lord. Amen.

--from Karl Barth, Selected Prayers