[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6134-6135]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Reverend Douglas Tanner, Executive Director, Faith and Politics 
Institute, Washington, D.C., offered the following prayer:
  Almighty God, we come before You this day aware that the 2 weeks 
since this House last convened have brought us into a new season. We 
have gathered with our families to celebrate Passover and Easter. The 
Tidal Basin has been graced by cherry blossoms and beavers, and buds 
have broken from the trees. We thank You that even on a cool, cloudy, 
windy day like this we can trust that in Washington the winter is past 
and spring has come.
  We pray especially today for those in Balkan lands for whom the past 
2 weeks have been so different, for those who have lived and continue 
to live every minute in terror, finding it hard to trust that anything 
is past except for their dreams, or that anything is coming except for 
more deprivation, despair, violence, and terror.
  As we face this harsh reality, Lord, deliver us from shallowness and 
pomposity. Grant us the grace to accept the things we cannot change, 
the courage to change the things we can, and

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the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.

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