[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 16, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, Rev. James David Ford, D.D., offered the following 
prayer: We cry for freedom, O God, so we can use our consciences and 
practice our best intentions. We are grateful that we can know the gift 
of liberty to express our personal values and ideals. Yet we confess, O 
God, that we can use our liberties and freedoms to avoid the 
responsibilities of caring for each other, of making our own sacrifice 
so the pain and suffering of others might be eased. O Author of all of 
life, remind us that we are bound together in this world by the common 
creation of Your hand, and we are nurtured each day by the unity that 
we try to share. So teach us to use our personal freedom so we are 
responsible in ways that promote justice and mercy for us and for every 
person. This is our earnest prayer. Amen.

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