[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27367]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Tomorrow is the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's famous 
Gettysburg Address.
  Lord, Lincoln spoke of the ``mystic chords of memory.'' He believed 
the revered dead make distinct demands on us, the living.
  In honoring those who gave their lives to preserve the sacred union 
of this Nation and to uphold the emancipated freedom of all peoples, 
Lincoln said, ``We take increased devotion to that cause for which they 
gave the last full measure of devotion.''
  So at Gettysburg then, so again, now, we the living are obliged to be 
``highly resolved that the dead shall not have died in vain.''
  By Your grace, Lord, and only by fulfilling present obligations to 
strengthen national unity and assure equal justice, will we the living 
pay fitting tribute to ``the honored dead.'' Each generation of 
Americans must see to it ``that this Nation under God shall have a new 
birth of freedom.''
  This must be our resolve, Lord, with Your help now and forever. Amen.

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