[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 179 (Tuesday, October 20, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H5697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 PRAYER

  Dr. Haywood A. Robinson, III, The People's Community Baptist Church, 
Silver Spring, Maryland, offered the following prayer:
  Eternal God, the source, sustainer, and supplier of everything 
pertaining to life, it is to You that we come this morning. Before You, 
Who, from nothing, created soil, seas, and skies, and Who established 
galaxies, groves, and governments, we come. We approach You with 
gratitude, mindful that as a Nation we have enjoyed Your providential 
presence, protection, power, and prosperity. And, for all of our 
individual and corporate wrongs, we repent and appeal to You for Your 
mercy.
  On behalf of the people of this land, Your appointed men and women 
assemble at this hour. We are keenly aware of the significance of the 
season in which this session convenes. In this season marked by 
darkness, we need Your light; marked by hatred, we need Your love; by 
disease, we need Your healing; by death, we need Your comfort; by 
despair, we need Your hope; by injustice, we need Your justice; and by 
lawlessness, Lord, we need Your grace. Grant these leaders the 
discernment to recognize Your will and the discipline to follow it.
  As a melting pot of cultures, languages, ideologies, and faith 
traditions, help us to coexist in unity while celebrating diversity. 
Guard and govern us such that our plurality leads, not to our peril, 
but to our promise and progress.
  Shape the atmosphere for us today to be one that is ripe for robust 
yet respectful discussion, debate, and decision making, resulting in 
legislation that promotes and protects the worth and welfare of each 
person in our great Nation, and by extension all people throughout the 
world, both now and for generations to come.
  In Jesus' name.
  Amen.

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