Blessings for Your Students (Prayers for Interfaith Communities in Higher Education)

An essential interfaith resource for university chaplains and spiritual leaders in higher education.

In an increasingly heterogenous age, any university chaplains and spiritual leaders struggle to center their student communities, aware of vast diversities in their needs – the prayers of one tradition are rarely sufficient to honor the many paths their students may be travelling. With this heartfelt collection of interfaith prayers, Janet Fuller leverages the fruits of 40 years of chaplaincy to bridge this gap, offering sample prayers and spiritual direction for use across all communities of learning, from the first day of school to the bittersweet crossroads of graduation. Chaplains will find support for all the essential student struggles, including new beginnings, athletics, loneliness, and the search for hope.

For use in part or whole, or as templates for other prayers, these blessings provide a voice for academic communities as they gather to give thanks, remember, and look to the future, all using language that commends itself to many spiritual paths or none at all. The prayers can also be adapted for chaplain use in hospitals, prisons, continuous care retirement communities, military gatherings, and many others. In a time when many exhibit a disinclination to hear with ears or hearts, Blessings for Your Students invites readers to listen closely to the power of prayer.