[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 11, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H5166]
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 and eternal God, on this 11th of September, we remember a clear 
blue sky and a nation at peace. As that memory is now shattered by the 
destruction that followed, we pray the wisdom to claim Your eternal 
promises in our country's remembrance of that tragedy.
  Like grass are our days, that flourish like flowers in the field. The 
wind passes over them, and they are gone. And so, in an instant, our 
country was robbed of its sense of security and bereft of thousands of 
its citizens, swept away by the winds of war.
  We pray that Your steadfast love, O Lord, which is from everlasting 
to everlasting, to rise from the wreckage of that defining day in 
history. Bless the sacrifice of too many of our sons and daughters who 
gave their lives to defend the freedoms assaulted on that bucolic day 
and the decades that followed. Heal the enduring grief of countless 
families. Bring peace upon our world which remains in upheaval.
  Remind us again of Your compassion for Your children. Freedom, by 
Your grace, is still to be found in You. Peace and justice, in Your 
mercy, are ours to preserve and uphold.
  Ennoble us as a nation, each children of Your creation, with the 
assurance that our hope still rests in You alone.
  God, bless America and receive our prayers as we offer them in the 
strength of Your name.
  Amen.

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