[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22510]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  In praying, ``Deliver us from evil, Lord,'' it often seems we are 
moved by a fear that evil is around us or beyond us, so we call out to 
You as the One who can distance this strange feeling--this stranger, 
alien, foreign enemy--even further away from us.
  Yet You see what we are unable to see. You understand and continue to 
love what we are yet unable to accept and so fear.
  Rather than take flight from the ground upon which we stand, Lord, 
Your Spirit alone enables us to go inward. There, without fear, we can 
admit that evil is so subtle, yet so real, that it hides itself under 
the cloak of our own self-righteousness.
  You alone, Lord, can deliver us from this evil because only true 
forgiveness can free us from the past. Only after we find forgiveness 
in ourselves can we look around us and see others like ourselves who 
can join in the work of reconciliation, creating new ground and 
inspiring others to place all their trust in You, now and forever.
  Amen.

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