[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22475]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Almighty God, 216 years ago, by the unanimous consent of the States 
present, in the 12th year of the independence of the United States, the 
Constitution of this country was ratified.
  We praise You and thank You for this founding document of our 
Republic. It establishes and defines the three branches of our 
government: the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judiciary. As a 
government of enumerated powers, those powers not granted to the 
Federal Government are reserved to the people themselves.
  By Divine Providence, Lord, this document of human liberty and God-
given rights came upon the world scene.
  Ever since, the kind of government our Founders and Framers have 
given us can best be described as ``a government of the people, by the 
people, and for the people.''
  Today we celebrate this great proclamation, so brilliant in its 
brevity and flexibility. As citizens of the Nation, we rejoice to have 
such guidance and assurance for our future.
  As witness to this 108th Congress, we thank You for those who bring 
to life the words of the Constitution in our own day. They enflesh this 
noble and brave idea of our Constitution and serve in the Federal 
Government as a testament to freedom and as a living promise for the 
world.
  In You our God we trust now and forever. Amen.

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