[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 31 (Monday, March 18, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H935]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord God of Redemption, humanly we are always in search for freedom. 
Sometimes oppression comes from outside ourselves; sometimes our 
limitations are from within. Your spirit alone sets us internally free 
to realize peace.
  The Mosaic Passover and Exodus and the Paschal Mystery of Jesus' 
death and resurrection help us interpret how You always lead Your 
people through suffering and death to the everlasting freedom You 
promise.
  Enable Members of Congress to enter by faith into the approaching 
feasts and experience the mysterious promise You present to us today. 
Guide them with an integrity of life and good judgment to lead Your 
people to greater and lasting freedom.
  Some people need to be freed of sickness and hunger; some need to be 
freed of injustice and terrorism. Some are caught in their own patterns 
of prejudice and revenge; some are desperate because of their anger and 
greed. In subtle yet profound ways, Lord, Your spirit can free people 
from self-interest, loneliness and compulsions. In Your own way, bring 
all beyond their imagining to the fulfillment of Your promise within 
them.
  Renew America these days in a new moral consciousness that will have 
the world respect us once again as the land of the free and the home of 
the brave, now and forever. Amen.

                          ____________________