[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 258]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  Reverend Dr. Kate Braestrup, Maine Warden Service, Lincolnville, 
Maine, offered the following prayer:
  St. Francis of Assisi advises us to pray constantly. If necessary, he 
says, use words.
  God, our prayer today arises from a house of words, from a Nation 
rooted in words. We do not derive our identity as Americans from our 
color or our creed, from our wealth or power, nor even from the land 
itself, though we do love the land.
  Rather, by Your grace, America is America through its words: That all 
men are created equal, that all are endowed with inalienable rights--
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--these beautiful, necessary 
words.
  God, may every word spoken and written from this Chamber contain an 
echo of those words. May our words, too, be necessary and true. May our 
words remember and inspire the brave, compassionate action that is and 
always has been America's finest prayer.
  Amen.

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