[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 201 (Wednesday, December 6, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H6155]
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:
  Open our eyes dear Lord. Give us sight in the overwhelming darkness 
that has blinded us to the light of Your will. The shadow of hatred for 
our brothers and sisters has blinded us to Your command to live and act 
in love.
  Open our eyes and our hearts and purge the animosity from our world 
where weapons of war and arms of outright prejudice are set in motion 
by human hands and triggered by the hardness of our hearts.
  Cleanse our hearts from every inkling of hostility wherever it dares 
to take root within us and however it is displayed by us: in our 
disdain for a relative or neighbor who has slighted us, in our contempt 
for Jews or Muslims or another person or group that has fallen out of 
our favor, and even in the insults we too often toss across the 
political aisle.
  Bring us out from the darkness we have created and call us back to 
our love for You by following Your command to love one another, that 
once again we would live in Your light.
  Shed Your divine light in our lives such that it would cause us to 
set down our weapons, abandon our hatred, and walk without stumbling, 
in the way You have revealed to us. In the power of Your name, we pray 
that You would grant us Your mercy and illumine Your will for us this 
day.
  Amen.

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