[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4977]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The guest Chaplain, Msgr. Clement J. Connolly, offered the following 
prayer:
  Ever present living God, here words are spoken, decisions are made 
that shape the lives and times of generations. We are entrusted with 
the sacred stewardship of legislating decisions for life and death. Not 
merely the quality of life is ours to measure, but even the length of 
life, and for a multitude. Once within our time and hearing a prophetic 
voice proclaimed Your gospel values in ``a dream'': peace, dignity, 
equality, community. Was it just a dream or the groaning of a great 
prayer asking for an Amen?
  When we yearn for peace,
  When power becomes powerless,
  When riches and poverty meet,
  When the one language of love unites us,
  When the courage of our belief is unfettered from special interests,
  When we see ourselves in the face of the other, the lion and the lamb 
lay down.
  Your word is revealed. You, Creator God, are present.
  Divine Wisdom, abide here so that every word spoken and every vote 
cast may be a prayer. The cause and the purpose may always give life, 
dignity, freedom, honor . . . above and beyond personal or factional 
preference.
  Thus so we pray, One Nation Under God, in the Name of that infinite 
God, Mystery, Many Faces, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Allah, 
Yahweh, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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