[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 10 (Thursday, January 16, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Patrick J. Conroy, offered the following 
prayer:
  Gracious and merciful God, we give You thanks for giving us another 
day.
  The House prepares to recess for a week of constituent visitation in 
home districts as the Nation anticipates the Martin Luther King long 
weekend.
  As we remember the heroic struggle of the civil rights movement, the 
``badges and incidents of slavery'' have perdured through policies 
still operative today, though recently being addressed through efforts 
at criminal justice reform and sentencing reform.
  The pains of racism, like a national genetic defect, plague us still, 
though so many wish it were not so. Lord, have mercy on us.
  Bless those who have been elected to secure laws protecting and 
expanding our cherished freedoms with the wisdom and vision to root out 
all traces of involuntary servitude in our Nation, most notably in 
human trafficking in our own time, so might we be able to declare with 
pride we are the land of the free.
  May we, as Americans, do our part to find the image and likeness of 
God in those of different race or ancestral country of origin.
  May all that is done this day be for Your greater honor and glory.
  Amen.

                          ____________________