[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9197]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  With the words about Judith from the Hebrew scriptures, let us pray 
for each of the women who serve in our military forces:
  ``Strike up a song to our God. Let us sing a hymn of praise as we 
honor and call upon God's holy name.
  ``The Lord is our God who stamps out wars. Enemies have threatened us 
and set fire to our land. The young they have killed, and they have 
left us widows and orphans.
  ``Yet the Lord has fought back with a woman's hand. She took off her 
mourning cloak and has taken on a new beauty.
  ``Some were struck by her daring. Others stopped by her boldness. She 
has led her people with a shout of triumph, and the enemy became 
paralyzed with fear.''
  So let us sing a new hymn, in our day, to the Lord, for the strength 
of our God has been made known in the glory of this woman, now and 
forever. Amen.

                          ____________________