[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 24 (Thursday, March 7, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H739]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page H739]]

House of Representatives

  The House met at 10 a.m.
  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord God, ever-attentive to our deepest needs, answer the prayers of 
the Members of Congress and bring them closer and closer to You.
  Lord, once you draw souls close to You, people desire to hold on to 
Your presence, and so they pray. Then to give flesh and blood to 
prayerful sentiments and words they enter into the realm of self-
denial. Finally, personal sacrifice, Lord, never seems worthwhile until 
it benefits another. So there are these three practices: prayer, 
fasting and acts of charity. The three are really one, giving life to 
each other as they bring us closer to You, O Lord.
  When we deny ourselves food, drink and any portion of daily life, we 
gain an inner reminder of being poor and in need. To sincerely petition 
You, Lord, one needs to first have listened to the pleas of another. 
Once in the simplicity of heart a person can admit the little they have 
and still deny self just a portion, then that person has something to 
offer another from the heart, be that time or a cup of water.
  Transform hearts, O Lord, by the Spirit of freedom and peace, then we 
will have something to offer the world, now and forever. Amen.

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