[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 29053]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord our Protector and Guide, as a pilgrim people traveling through 
space and time but anchored in eternity, we are always awaiting a new 
life; as we celebrate a life suspended by all the relationships we 
already know.
  As Americans, it is hope, Lord, that keeps us fixed on the future. 
Hope carries us through good times and bad, yet hope secures our 
existence and our purpose in the here and now. Help us to draw closer 
to the Source of Hope, not to be found in the strong wind of turmoil 
that today's world brings, not in the earthquake of power plays, not in 
the fire that human desire consumes, but rather in the sound of sheer 
silence that the holy Scriptures reveal.
  Lord, once we have found our authentic source of hope, we can make 
the necessary corrections in our itinerary. We can make expectations 
fit words revealed and let the beauty of divine energy prevail over 
self-centeredness and fear. Once we can place all our hope in You, 
Lord, where it belongs, we can rest and enjoy, because then the 
incredible can be believable and the impossible seem within reach.
  In You, O Lord, we place our trust now and forever. Amen.

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