[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14145]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord God of sacred revelation, the poetic and pathetic story of Job 
raises for every generation the mysterious question of human suffering: 
Why do bad things happen to good people?
  In our own day, Lord, we hear Job in the African cry of the poor, in 
the conflicted mind of the wounded Marine and in the silence of the 
abused child.
  Make the Members of Congress true comforters of Job, who not only 
talk about suffering but are in anguish to relieve his fate. Lift them 
from the illusion that virtue is directly linked to public notoriety 
and comparative wealth. Rather, by the infusion of faith, Lord, plunge 
them into a deeper solidarity with the war-torn poor and the heroic 
innocents so that Job's blessing may truly be their own:
  ``Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return. The 
Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the 
Lord forever.''
  Amen

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