Following is the text to the prayer offered by President D. Todd Christofferson, second counselor in the First Presidency, to rededicate the San Diego California Temple on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026.
O God, our Eternal Father, Thou great Elohim, we present ourselves before Thee on this joyful Sabbath day of dedication. We gather in a spirit of worship and devotion. We pray that Thou wilt accept our petitions, our thanksgiving and our offering this day.
We rejoice and we thank Thee, our Heavenly Father, for the restoration and renewal of this holy house. We thank Thee for the tithes and offerings of Thy Saints around the world that have made this work possible. Wilt Thou indeed open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon them and rebuke the devourer for their sakes, according to Thy promise (Malachi 3:10-11).
We thank Thee for the plan of redemption and happiness that Thou hast constituted for the eternal progression of Thy sons and daughters. We are grateful that Thou hast established once again Thy new and everlasting covenant in this great and last dispensation. Above all, our hearts are filled with gratitude for the Atonement wrought by Thy divine Son, Jesus, knowing that His infinite sacrifice to redeem us from sin and death is essential to Thy eternal plan. We acknowledge this ultimate expression of His love and of Thy love for us — than which love there is none greater. Unitedly in this moment, we express to Thee and to Him our unending love and gratitude.
We thank Thee for having restored to the earth the Holy Priesthood after the Order of Thy Son that offers to Thy children of all generations the foreordained ordinances and covenants necessary for exaltation in Thy presence. We thank Thee for this temple and all temples that have been and will yet be built to Thy name wherein the holiest of these ordinances and covenants may be realized. We thank Thee for the keys of the Holy Priesthood, including and especially the keys of sealing to bind beyond the veil that which is bound on earth.
And so, beloved Father, acting in the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood and in the name of Jesus Christ, at the direction of the President of the Church, President Dallin H. Oaks, we dedicate to Thee and Thy Son this, the San Diego California Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We dedicate the structure from its foundation and footings to the figure of Moroni which crowns its highest steeple. We dedicate the baptistry, the sealing rooms with their sacred altars, the endowment rooms, the beautiful celestial room and all the facilities and fixtures of the temple and consecrate them for their intended use in carrying out the work of salvation and exaltation for the living and the dead. We also dedicate and bless the temple grounds and ancillary buildings that serve the temple. May all aspects of this magnificent edifice come together to present a picture of the majesty of Thy work.
We humbly ask Thee to accept this offering at our hands and deem it worthy even though we, the givers, are imperfect. Wilt Thou consecrate and sanctify this temple as a place of holiness. Protect it, we pray Thee, from the ravages of nature and from desecration or pollution of any kind, and preserve the sacredness of this Thy house against evil of any form.
We pray that the long-prophesied gathering of Thy covenant people now underway both on earth and in the world of spirits may continue apace. We pray that our labors in this gathering as members and missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ might be magnified and made fruitful. May our sheaves be many, and may they, with us, be gathered into the garners where the storms and fierce winds of the enemy cannot penetrate (Alma 26:5-6). May all who enter the temple with clean hands and pure hearts find refuge and renewal, and may they leave armed with righteousness (1 Nephi 14:14).
As we, Thy servants, call upon Thee in this holy house, wilt Thou hear us in heaven and hearken to our supplications. Preserve us from the sin and wickedness that surround us. Help us cast away all impurity and pride from our minds and hearts. Help us minister to those in distress in whatever circumstance we may.
We recall and renew the petitions of Thy servant President Gordon B. Hinckley in the initial dedication of this temple and reference two of them specifically:
First, “Bless this land [the United States of America], ... and bless those who govern that the precious liberties enunciated in the Bill of Rights may never be abridged nor taken from the people. Strengthen the cause of freedom among the nations of the earth.”
Second, “Bless the posterity of Lehi. ... Lift from their weary shoulders the burdens of the past. Grant unto those who walk in faith an enlarged understanding of things divine as well as blessings of temporal peace and prosperity.”
Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the Prophet Joseph Smith who stands at the head of this last dispensation. We are grateful for his faith and perseverance in the face of relentless opposition and persecution. We thank Thee for all that Thou hast brought to pass through his instrumentality in the prophesied “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21). We are grateful for his successors holding and exercising the keys of this dispensation down to the present moment.
We invoke Thy blessing on the leaders and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to include the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Seventy, the Presiding Bishopric, the General Officers and the local leaders of the Church throughout the world, and in special measure the missionaries who represent and proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ across the earth. Protect and magnify them, we pray. “May the kingdom of God go forth, that the kingdom of heaven may come, that thou, O God, mayest be glorified in heaven so on earth” (Doctrine and Covenants 65:6).
We lift this prayer unto Thee, our Heavenly Father, in a spirit of love and rejoicing. We thank Thee for Thy tender mercies. Look upon us in love and mercy wherever we are assembled today and be mindful of us in all the days to come, we pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
