[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 130 (Friday, September 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H8657]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 PRAYER

  The Reverend Douglas Tanner, Faith & Politics Institute, Washington, 
D.C., offered the following prayer:
  Let us pray. Almighty God, we come before You this morning conscious 
of a change in the seasons. We still see around us signs of a dry 
summer. Trees have suffered, and some have died. Others, with deeper 
roots, have reached well below the surface, found water, and grown even 
in the drought-like conditions, like President Nelson Mandela in his 
prison cell. We marvel at the ways You redeem Your creation.
  We know, O God, that we could experience the coming season in this 
institution as one of spiritual drought, with little rain falling to 
nurture mutual respect and appreciation for each other across 
ideological and party lines. We could see streams of wisdom and 
statesmanship disappear into a desert of superficial and self-righteous 
postures.
  Save us, we pray, from such a season. But if we must fully enter it, 
deepen the roots in our souls. Nourish our awareness, Lord, of truth, 
beauty, compassion, and understanding, that in even such a season, we 
may grow toward Your light. Amen.

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