[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12034]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The guest Chaplain offered the following prayer:
  Let us pray.
  O Lord, who hears our prayers as this session now begins and before 
the leaders here debate the issues they confront and with which our 
country and our people struggle, we begin united, united with a prayer, 
a reminder that even as we disagree on one course of action or the 
next, we do so in pursuit of common prayers, common dreams--liberty, 
dignity, and freedom--that unite us all. We sometimes call this 
starting prayer an invocation, but it is not Your presence we invoke, 
for You are always with us. No matter where we are or where we go, as 
we soar on eagle's wings toward heaven, as we search the deepest 
reaches of the sea, or as we seek to balance right and responsibility 
through the actions taken here in the Halls of Congress, we know we 
find Your hand. Instead, it is awareness of Your presence that we call 
forth, that we invoke a reminder of a plan or dream in which we might 
play a part, a promise of a better world, better time, a time of peace 
and justice that we might help to build. May Your presence touch our 
lives, and even shape our words, so that we might find the wisdom and 
the courage to do our part to keep our dreams and prayers alive and 
help make those dreams and prayers come true. And may we say, Amen.

                          ____________________