[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 12]
[HOU]
[Page 15900]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord, the summer solstice has already passed. So quietly and 
relentlessly daylight grows shorter. The full expression of family joy 
on a weekend holiday or a brief summer vacation is abruptly ended with 
the news of a Metro train crash. The bright light is suddenly dimmed 
when the cloud of fragile life passes by.
  Lord, we lift up in prayer all those who died or were injured in 
yesterday's tragedy here in Northeast Washington. Be with their 
families, neighbors and friends.
  As You restore confidence and peace to the fragile systems of routine 
in our workaday world, Lord, we bless You and praise You for all of the 
good days and the good times we try to hold onto as best we can, 
because they carry us through the times that are not so good.
  Lord of the ages, it is You who hold all together and oversee the 
seasons of everyone's life, even as summer days grow shorter. Both now 
and forever. Amen.

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