[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20771]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord, in a culture that prefers the ease of ``either-or'' thinking 
and ``absolutes'' sneak into everyday conversations, we need Your 
stable presence, Lord, to understand our own limitations and accept the 
differences of others.
  Unless we are versed in holding onto the mystery in everyday living, 
life can be boring or filled with just too many contradictions.
  Sometimes when we face the end of a term, the autumn of another year, 
we do look beyond the surface of daily events.
  Slowly in the diminishing sunlight the shadows reveal the inner 
meaning of what has been really happening and what we do truly relish 
in what has been.
  The autumnal events of life can still bear fruit, yet at another 
time, in another place, or in another person.
  The job lost can lead to a work that needs to be done.
  The problem unsolved can lead to more insightful questions.
  And the self once lost in a crazy routine can be found again and live 
forever.
  Amen.

                          ____________________