[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 44 (Thursday, March 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S3691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer
  The guest chaplain, the Reverend Dr. Neal T. Jones, Columbia Baptist 
Church, Falls Church, VA, offered the following prayer:
  Let us pray:
  Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You for the support of our 
constituents: optimists, pessimists, and realists. We ask Your help in 
passing legislation that will meet the needs of all our people.
  Save us from optimism that exaggerates human goodness and ignores 
evil capacities. Deliver us from pessimism that looks at light and 
calls it darkness. Deliver us from pessimism that cloaks the world in 
black. Also, take us beyond the borders of realism. We need more than 
diagnostic accuracy and cold verdicts of limited human insight.
  We, therefore, ask You to raise us above optimism, pessimism, and 
realism to hope. Help us to trust You, the One before, after, and 
within--always in charge of history. We praise You for giving us 
existential usefulness because of eternal trust.
  In Jesus' name. Amen.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Thank you, Reverend Jones.

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