[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22952]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord, our God, as we approach our national holiday of Thanksgiving, 
we humbly ask You to prepare our hearts, that we may praise You, the 
source of all creative blessings and the very inspiration that draws us 
into the oneness of a common table.
  As a Nation, Lord, help us to see that no one we know celebrates this 
feast alone. Expand our table of hospitality and compassion.
  Guide us to be creative in leading recent immigrants and visitors to 
understand that we, as a people, with all our diversity, live by faith 
and enjoy a freedom of religious expression.
  Whether our prayer of praise and thanks finds words or simply 
plummets the human heart into grateful silence, may we be sincere and 
renewed in spirit.
  By Your grace make us bold enough to acknowledge all our dependencies 
and give voice to thank those around us who protect us, work with us, 
pray with us and love us.
  Strengthen, Lord, those at our table this year whose thanksgiving is 
shaken by suffering or the pain of loss.
  May they and all of us in this Nation with them be nurtured by 
renewed awareness of Your daily blessings and our common resolve to 
seek peace through equal justice both now and forever.
  Amen.

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