[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 24]
[House]
[Page 32028]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  During this season of holidays and holy days, Lord, we pray for 
families all across this Nation. The times, economics, and unemployment 
are causing great stress within some families. Military service, 
sickness, recent deaths, and alienation bring other families to the 
point of heartbreak and tears. Yet we believe, Lord, that the family is 
not only the basic social unit upon which our communities and our 
Nation are built. Family life is the ``domestic church'' where prayer 
is practiced and faith is first witnessed.
  For You, Lord God, the family itself is a great mystery, our first 
school of formation, which shapes human values, affirms self-image, and 
provides a world view. Here one accepts personal independence within a 
sense of belonging and authority with a sense of humor, bold enough to 
giggle at life's inconsistencies and laugh at oneself. Daily, children 
and adults learn self-giving, gratitude, patience, forgiveness, and 
simple expressions of love and being loved.
  Lord, may Congress respect and protect family life in this country. 
With Your blessing, may every family this season nurture the experience 
of love: conjugal love, paternal and maternal love, fraternal love, and 
the love of a community of persons and of generations. May they 
acknowledge Your Presence in everyone around the table, both now and 
forever. Amen.

                          ____________________