[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 23 (Wednesday, March 6, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page H689]]

House of Representatives

  The House met at 10 a.m.
  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord, merciful and gracious God, bless Congress today. You lead all 
into the desert in search of salvation. There light and darkness are 
bold and relentless, each night falling suddenly on the Nation's 
brightness. For in Your presence the barren land is timeless. As the 
cold mountains are once again awakened by the pounding, shake us into 
Lenten awareness.
  Forty years seems hardly a lifetime anymore. Yet Your people wandered 
aimlessly through purification longing for Your promises to be 
fulfilled.
  Forty days seems far longer than a month's time now. Yet removed from 
the crowd, Moses and Jesus climbed the desolate stage of this mountain 
to seek Your face.
  This year make our annual desert story victorious by Your Holy Name. 
May Passover and Christian Pasch bring forth the first vestiges of 
peace. For this we pray now and forever. Amen.

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