[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6168]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Reverend John F. Baldwin, Captain, Chaplain Corps. U.S. Navy-
Retired, and priest, Archdioceses of Chicago, Illinois, offered the 
following prayer:
  Bless the Lord, all works of the Lord.
  Praise to You, Creator God, for singularly blessing these United 
States from the creative hopes and labors of our Founding Fathers until 
this session of the 107th Congress.
  We, the people, bless our forefathers' memory, their vision, their 
passion for freedom, their acceptance of personal responsibility, their 
recognition of Your grace and providence.
  Life is God's gift to us. What we do with our lives is our gift to 
God.
  As we nourish and cherish our lives, so may we respect and nourish 
the most fragile, the weakest, the most destitute among us.
  Thanks be to the living God for placing a spirit of service in the 
hearts of the men and women of this House. Through their work, create 
unity without uniformity, justice that is blind, civility and respect 
without retribution or revenge. Let their voices ring with truth, their 
lives echo integrity.
  So bless this day, Lord God, our country and this Congress to Your 
service, a beacon of justice for all God's children. Amen.

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