[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16347]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, offered the following prayer:
  Gracious Father, we begin this day with the amazing assurance of Your 
lovingkindness. We hear Your word to us through Jeremiah, ``I have 
loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have 
I drawn you.''--Jeremiah 31:3.--We respond with the grateful words of 
the psalmist: ``How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God.''--Psalm 
36:7. ``Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall 
praise You.''--Psalm 63:3.
  As Your lovingkindness captures our thinking, we feel Your 
acceptance, forgiveness, and compassion. There is nothing we can do 
that will make You stop loving us but there is something we can do to 
realize Your love for us. We can love ourselves as loved and forgiven 
by You, and we can dedicate this day to communicating Your loving-
kindness to the people around us. Remind us that practical, positive 
acts of lovingkindness heal the one who does them and those who receive 
them. Alert us to people who need Your lovingkindness through us and 
make this a ``do it and say it'' kind of day. Through our Lord and 
Saviour. Amen.

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