[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 17, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Margaret Grun Kibben, offered the 
following prayer:
  Holy God, You are the first and the last. You have made known the end 
from the beginning. In Your timelessness, You have set forth Your 
servants to speak Your eternal word to us, that we would hear You in 
our time. And in such a time as this, we recall the words of Martin 
Luther King, Jr., who spoke words of forgiveness. May we have ears to 
hear them this day.
  We pray for upward forgiveness that we may embrace Your divine mercy. 
For You have judged us and others around us, and still, in Your 
magnitude, You forgive us all.
  We pray for the capacity for inward forgiveness, giving up that deep-
seated desire within us to get even with those who have hurt or 
offended us. May we find in us Your spirit which ministers to our own 
and receive the ability to give forgiveness from within our heart.
  We pray that we would offer outward forgiveness, to share an attitude 
of reconciliation in all our broken relationships. Would that You, 
through us, allow us to promote a spiritual mindset of forgiveness that 
even our most challenging encounters would be redeemed.
  We humble ourselves before You, acknowledging that we need first to 
come lay before You our own faults. Only then may we receive Your mercy 
and will You use us this day to share the good news of Your eternal 
love.
  In Your everlasting name, we pray.
  Amen.

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