[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1290]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Out of the depths we cry to You, O Lord.
  From the depths of Ground Zero, from the chasm in the Pentagon and 
from the seared field in Pennsylvania with bitter tears, the soul of 
this Nation was ripped open and we have cried, cried out to You, O 
Lord.
  Lord, hear our prayer.
  We have mourned. We have lamented. We have been robbed of illusions. 
The reality of evil we have faced.
  Be attentive, Lord, to our plea for mercy.
  Our frailty has been revealed; our mortality known. In our 
confrontation we reached out to one another and found some 
satisfaction. Our living resolve has been strong, but the threat of 
evil surrounds us. At times we sense the evil within.
  Lord, show us Your mercy. Lord, be close to all the Members of 
Congress and the people they represent today and in the days ahead as 
we all continue to seek Your mercy.
  Lift us out of our burdens for in You and You alone is the fullness 
of redemption now and forever. Amen.

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