[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6631]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord our God, by Your inspiration You draw all toward the light. By 
Your penetrating grace You sustain us and encourage us to the end.
  A common religious practice is to join others in a pilgrimage. Moving 
together to a common destination may uncover many a pilgrim story. An 
historic reenactment or a visit to a shrine brings to life again the 
powerful memory of that first epic journey.
  Being on a pilgrimage combines the diversity of motivations into a 
single purpose. Focused on a common goal, discoveries are made all 
along the route and a sense of community lifts everyone with the final 
energy to attain the ascent.
  Lord, human life itself is a pilgrimage. As a mental paradigm, 
pilgrimage can transform weeks of a season, or an academic semester, 
even a session of Congress, as long as all participants fix their eyes 
on the prize and help each other give You the glory every step of the 
way until the final goal is reached. Amen.

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