[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 23]
[House]
[Page 31007]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord God, for people who live in the light of faith and who are 
attuned to Your greatest commandment, peace is always more than the 
absence of war. It remains a matter of the human heart.
  Peace cannot be reduced to a human concept as only the balance of 
power for opposing forces. We know, Lord, peace cannot be imposed by 
human authority or by simple majority. Peace, Lord, is often illusive 
for us because it remains beyond our imagining or achievement. Peace is 
a gift.
  Peace, Lord, is born out of the right ordering of things which You, 
the Creator, have invested in human society. Peace is realized by us, 
when our thirsting for an ever more perfect realm of justice and union 
reaches a certain plateau that invites us to go even further.
  Lord, grant us peace of heart so we may bring this gift to our family 
life, work for justice, and so gift our world, both now and forever.
  Amen.

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