[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 42 (Friday, April 3, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S3191]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, offered the following prayer:
  Lord God, Sovereign of this Nation, we praise You for the gift of 
authentic hope. More than wishful thinking, yearning, or shallow 
optimism, we turn to You for lasting hope. We have learned that true 
hope is based on the expectation of the interventions of Your Spirit 
that are always on time and in time. You are the intervening Lord of 
the Passover, the opening of the Red Sea, the giving of the Ten 
Commandments. You have vanquished the forces of evil, death, and fear 
through the Cross and the Resurrection. All through the history of our 
Nation, You have blessed us with Your providential care. It is with 
gratitude that we affirm, ``Blessed is the Nation whose God is the 
Lord.''--Psalm 33:12.
  May this sacred season, including both Passover and Holy Week, be a 
time of rebirth of hope in us. May Your Spirit of hope displace the 
discordant spirit of cynicism, discouragement, and disunity. Hope 
through us, O God of hope. Flow through us patiently until we hope for 
one another what You have hoped for us. Then Lord, give us the vision 
and courage to confront those problems that have made life seem 
hopeless for some people. Make us communicators of hope. We trust our 
lives, the work of the Senate, and the future of our Nation into Your 
all-powerful hands. In the Name of the Hope of the World. Amen.

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