[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12745]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 12745]]

           HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES--Wednesday, June 18, 2008


  The House met at 9:30 a.m.
  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Water, not only the essential planetary element, O Lord, water itself 
ushers in new human life. For Your people of covenant, both old and 
new, the symbol of water is complex, never stable, always fresh and 
beautiful, sometimes fearful and tragic.
  As the Spring of Salvation, we call upon Your Holy Name to calm the 
waters of anxiety in mid-America. Enable Your people to cross these 
present waters of disaster and bring them to Your promised land of 
fruitful plenty.
  In the book of Joshua, water upon the fleece is Joshua's own test of 
Your presence in the midst of trouble; later the way his people take 
water unto themselves becomes their measurement.
  End this waterboarding of America's fields and rural towns even if we 
can no longer define torture ourselves. By the wellspring of Your 
Spirit, mix all our human endeavors with our natural resources in such 
an outstanding victory that believers and unbelievers alike will be 
touched again as in Joshua's day and acclaim: ``Their hearts melted and 
became as water!''
  This is our prayer now and forever. Amen.

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