[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17923]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Reverend Erin Conaway, South Main Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, 
offered the following prayer:
  Holy and merciful God, we come before You this morning, taking time 
to breathe in the grace and the bountiful love You lavish upon us 
through so many avenues we take for granted: the lilting of a bird's 
song, the array of colors from every budding bloom, the unadulterated 
joy of a child dancing, and, in this place, the trust of a Nation, 
constituents across the country who find hope in the representation 
they have in this Chamber, and the empowerment their hope gives to our 
Representatives to fulfill the call You, O God, have placed upon their 
lives.
  Give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts to feel Your loving 
presence and guidance as we courageously work to serve others.
  Lord, you are the giver of dreams, and the author of real hope. In 
this quiet moment, we pray for a raucous peace to comfort us enough to 
listen and move us enough to dream, that dream that seems impossible 
and out of reach so that when we open our eyes and realize the dream is 
here, it will be to Your glory.
  Help us to be agents of peace and empowerment, justice and mercy, 
freedom and dreams, for we pray in Your name. Amen.

                          ____________________