[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 8, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H2868-H2869]
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, because Your prophet Jeremiah is so highly personal, 
agonizing for his people and constantly interacting with the members of 
his community, he becomes a model for the Members of the 108th 
Congress.
  His hopes and visions, doubts and hesitations, anger and resentments, 
as

[[Page H2869]]

well as arguments and pleading and bonding with others, all these 
emotions and the troublesome times tear apart Jeremiah's fragile 
temperament and fling themselves upon the pages of his prophecy.
  Jeremiah is realistic and bold as he declares sin inevitably brings 
its own sorrow. People who go after empty idols become empty 
themselves. We are all transformed for good or bad by that which we 
desire.
  Lord, because this prophet will not evade the honest emotional 
reaction of what is going on around him, You make him a guide for Your 
people now caught up in war. Although Jeremiah is never far removed 
from the agony of people, hope for him is always stirring just beneath 
the surface of the barren Earth.
  The word of the Lord endures forever. Amen.

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