[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 66 (Thursday, April 24, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H2738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER IN AMERICAN LIFE AND HISTORY

  (Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a member of 
the bipartisan Congressional Prayer Caucus, as we do each week, to 
formally acknowledge the importance of prayer in American life and 
history. Today I remind my colleagues, constituents and country of our 
need for prayer by reading a portion of a proclamation by John Hancock 
220 years ago in 1783 while he was Governor of the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts.
  He said, ``It has been the laudable Practice of this Country, to open 
the Business of the Year, by setting apart a Day for Religious 
Exercise, thereby to implore the Blessing of God upon all the 
Undertakings of his People.
  ``He hath been graciously pleased to hear our Prayers. At such a Time 
then, it is peculiarly fit and becoming for us as a People, while we 
express our Gratitude to Almighty God for his numerous and unmerited 
Favors, to humble ourselves before Him for our manifold Sins, and to 
profess our entire Dependence upon his paternal Care, beseeching Him to 
give us his Grace that we may be able to improve his Mercies to his 
Honor and Glory.''

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