`TODAY'S PRAYER' IS ADDED

Today marks the addition of a daily prayer to the Southeast Missourian's Opinion page. It is in the upper left-hand corner just above these editorials.

Prayers are not foreign to newspapers, although relatively few of them carry a prayer every day. A couple of readers of this newspaper recently returned from Arizona where they were struck by the dimension a daily prayer added to a major newspaper there. They suggested a daily prayer for the Southeast Missourian, and it with great pride that we begin offering a prayer on the Opinion page each day.

At one time, a daily Bible verse was published each day in this newspaper. Other newspapers continue to do that. But by and large newspapers, like so many other institutions of American society, have let a close association with the Almighty fall by the wayside.

This nation is besieged by problems and worries that too often appear to be beyond any hope of resolution. Prayers have been removed from our schools. Religious references have been banned from our public buildings, even though prayers still are offered at the start of many public meetings from sessions of Congress to local government meetings.

A brief prayer each day in the newspaper isn't going to change the world. But if our readers take a few seconds to read the prayer on this page each day, those prayers will be mingled with the private and public devotions of millions of Americans who already are on speaking terms with God. Surely this can only help left the spirits of those who choose to participate.