[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 50 (Monday, May 2, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The guest chaplain, Richard C. Halverson, Jr., offered the following 
prayer:
  As we go to pray, it would be fitting to remember that at this very 
moment, Nelson Mandela, the new President of the African National 
Congress, is addressing his people.
  Let us pray:
  Almighty God, we who bow to pray in this Senate Chamber stand beneath 
words inscribed on the wall which read, ``In God We Trust.'' Thy divine 
hand of providence graciously caused these words to appear before us. 
And though the people of this land have different understandings of who 
Thou art in whom we trust, this statement has offered the possibility 
of a national confession of faith.
  Yet we would not presume upon Thy kindness by invoking too lightly 
this declaration. For we recall quite a different message which 
appeared on the wall of another nation in the palace of Belshazzar, 
king of the chaldeans. We recall that all the king's wisemen--the 
astrologers, the chaldeans, and soothsayers--could not read the writing 
nor make known the interpretation thereof. And that it remained for the 
great Hebrew prophet, Daniel, to reveal its meaning: ``Mene'': God hath 
numbered thy kingdom and finished it. ``Tekel'': Thou art weighed in 
the balances and art found wanting. ``Peres'': Thy kingdom is divided 
and given to the Medes and Persians.
  Gracious Father, let not such words of doom be cast upon this Nation. 
May the words ``In God We Trust'' remain the handwriting on the wall 
for this generation. Open our eyes that we may see and believe in Thee, 
the living God, in whose hands our breath is.
  This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, whose incarnation revealed 
the essence of all sacred writings, who came not to judge but to save. 
Amen.

                          ____________________