[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 188 (Thursday, November 16, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S7269]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 PRAYER

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Today's opening prayer will be offered by Rev. 
Adrian Brooks, senior pastor at Memorial Baptist Church in Evansville, 
IN.
  The guest Chaplain offered the following prayer:
  Let us pray.
  O God, we first thank You for another day of life. We thank You for 
another chance to bring joy and opportunity to someone else's journey. 
Lord, guide these public servants within the United States Senate. 
Please lead them as they lead us to a better and more peaceful 
landscape. Create, O God, within all of us, the zeal to make our 
communities around this country more stable. Remove from us any 
personal animosity that might prevent us from acting as my brother and 
sister's keeper. We ask Your healing on those Members of this 
legislative body who are injured or sick.
  We ask, O Lord, that You would extend comfort and peace to those 
families who have been affected by the tragedy in Sutherland Springs, 
TX. Even in the midst of this tragedy, we thank You, O God, that those 
26 fellow sojourners are in Your loving presence, a celestial place 
where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary always find rest.
  Lord, bless our President. Give him, O God, the wisdom and insight to 
move us toward a more unified and loving Union. May we become, O God, 
more united in the things that bring us together and reject the smaller 
things that drive us apart. Help us to catch the spirit of those who 
wrote the Declaration of Independence. They knew then, and we know now, 
that this was something splendid and august and powerful.
  O God, You have brought us to this critical moment. Let us not lean 
on our own understanding, but help us, O God, to let Your Spirit take 
the reins of our hearts and minds. Make us more innovative and less 
reactive. Let the creative genius that is part of the American fabric 
take over the urban and rural American landscape. We pray now, O God, 
that the diversity and inclusion of people and ideas become our 
strength and not our wedge.
  Now, Lord, help us to live by our faith and not by our fears. Help us 
to face the future with a trust in You and confidence in America's 
bright, glad tomorrow. Lord, we know that if we trust You, our best 
days as a nation are waiting on us.
  It is in Your powerful and majestic Name that we pray. Amen.

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