[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1237]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The guest Chaplain offered the following prayer:
  Let us pray:
  Almighty God, You created us and You know us intimately. You know 
even better than do we why we entered the public arena. Our aspirations 
of service for others were and still are so high. Yet You know how 
hammered we are in our personal and professional lives by the realities 
of relational tensions, the complexity of issues, the ambiguity of 
solutions, our partisan agendas, and the pressures, political and 
financial, to remain professionally vital. These and more cause us to 
lose our focus on why we are doing what we are doing. Renew our vision 
when we temporarily lose it.
  Dear Lord, may the zeal and enthusiasm of ones new to this Chamber be 
melded with the experience of the veterans into a synergism of 
governance for the common good that is both faithful to deeply held 
convictions while sensitive to doing together, across party lines, that 
which will strengthen this Nation in the challenges we face. Help us to 
uphold righteousness, justice, mercy and peacemaking in all affairs, 
domestic and international.
  May our individual and corporate prayer be that of the Psalmist who 
vulnerably cried out: ``Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me 
and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me 
and lead me in the way everlasting.''
  Finally, thank You, Lord, for our brother Lloyd Ogilvie who, as 
Chaplain, has given 8 sterling years of service marked by dignity, 
sensitivity, eloquence, spirituality, and the modeling of the right 
priorities, as he soon leaves this office to stand caringly by his 
beloved Mary Jane. Bless him as You, through him, have blessed us.
  In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

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