[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 4099]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Today's prayer will be offered by the Reverend 
Dr. J. Layton Mauze, III, of Gastonia, NC.
  The guest Chaplain offered the following prayer:
  Let us pray.
  Gracious God, Creator of life and the sustainer of all things, 
including political things, we bow before You this day in humility and 
with thankful hearts to acknowledge that our lives are a gift of Your 
grace, renewed every morning and nurtured every day in Your tender 
care.
  We begin this time together by acknowledging our faith in You and our 
dependence upon You. We begin by saying that our religious faith and 
commitment do influence our opinions and convictions, our daily and 
political life.
  So help us never to let our politics or our religion become dirty by 
default, but help us to keep the moral integrally related to the 
political, and give us the wisdom and courage to stand for the hard 
right against the easy wrong.
  Strengthen and encourage each of these Senators today, we pray, and 
guide and protect our beloved Nation, particularly in these ethically 
difficult times. May justice prevail and leadership based on integrity 
be the dominant note.
  Keep us all faithful to the opportunities and challenges this day 
will bring, and make us a blessing to all those our lives will touch.
  To that end, grant us that illumination without which we walk in 
darkness, that inspiration without which we spend our days in 
mediocrity, and that intelligence without which we stumble in folly.
  This, our prayer, we offer to You in faith, and with thanksgiving in 
the strong Name of our God. Amen.

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