[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 21037]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, offered the following prayer:
  O merciful Lord, we thank You for the refreshment and accomplishments 
of our time away and for Your clear, shining inward light that directs 
our steps. May the Members of this body feel Your peace and power 
today. Restrain wandering thoughts and break in pieces those 
temptations that lead them away from Your will. Lord, join our Senators 
to Yourself with an inseparable bond of love, for You alone truly 
satisfy. Grant that their love may abound more and more in knowledge 
and depth of insight, so that they may be able to discern what is best, 
and may be pure and blameless when they stand before You.
  Lord, this is the first time in nearly 50 years that the Senate will 
convene without Senator Edward Kennedy as one of its Members. Thank You 
for his life and legacy.
  We pray in Your sovereign name. Amen.

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