[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19424]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  The Nation, Lord God, is overwhelmed today by the mournful sound that 
comes from the Deep South.
  Like a familiar songstress who knows the fragile pain of us all, her 
prayer, if set to music, would hold us as an audience on suspended 
notes that would lift us beyond present expectations.
  From New Orleans and cities, towns, and rural areas of Louisiana, 
Mississippi and Alabama, there rises a soulful lament born of the blues 
now turned black.
  The dreadful hurricane has swept over the South as a violent baptism. 
As witnesses, all of us turn to You, O Lord. You alone can renew faith 
and bring these people to new and promising life.
  The cries of the poor over their families, their homes, their past 
and their future can sway any indifferent heart in America to be moved 
to prayer, solidarity, and generosity.
  Until the South can sing again Your praises in her churches, on front 
porches, in the fields and the shipyards once again, we will hold onto 
the words of Your Song of Songs: ``Deep waters cannot quench love; nor 
floods sweep it away.''
  Help us, Lord, to trust in Your faithful love and deepen our love for 
one another, especially those most in need of the kindness of 
strangers.
  Amen.

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