[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7778]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord God, Well-spring of all creation and Provident Guide of our 
Nation's history, You bring us together for this session of the 109th 
Congress of the United States.
  From diversity, You fashion one Nation. Out of the human search for 
truth and faulty efforts to lovingly accept one another in fellowship, 
You inspire consensus and settle a just yet temporary compromise. Grant 
to all patience and civility in every endeavor.
  For You leave this work in such human hands, though You are the 
designer of lasting results.
  Lord, without a transcendent framework, the movable pieces of this 
mosaic of government will not fall into place.
  Alone and filled with fears and absolutes, all human effort to seek 
the common good will only lead to some artificial conformity or 
relative common denominator.
  So again, our Nation turns to You in prayer, as we will do, now and 
forever. Amen.

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