[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25035]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord of history and giver of all good and lasting gifts, America's 
Thanksgiving prayer seems to expand each year. Perhaps because human 
life seems all the more fragile in a globalized world where there is so 
much war and violence. Perhaps because we treasure freedom all the more 
as we learn about so many people in the world who have never 
experienced what true freedom means. Perhaps because we have come to 
see that so many blessings are not costly but freely given by You to 
all and that the most valuable blessings are not material but wrapped 
in spiritual meaning and not individually possessed but mutually shared 
with others.
  No matter how we as persons calculate, measure, or recognize our 
blessings, Lord, may each of us here in America grow in gratitude this 
Thanksgiving Day because grateful people are usually more gracious; and 
as Americans, we not only see ourselves blessed, we also wish to be a 
blessing to the rest of the world.
  Amen.

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