[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6370]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1730
RECOGNITION OF THE 63RD ANNUAL OBSERVANCE OF THE NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to follow a gentleman like Mr. 
Gohmert here. My subject matter for this minute is about the National 
Day of Prayer. I would like to add to his comments: we should also pray 
for Israel.
  Recognition of the 63rd Annual Observance of the National Day of 
Prayer will be this Thursday, May 1.
  Our Nation has a rich prayerful heritage, a heritage that began with 
many of our first settlers to the New World and strengthened through 
the first national call to prayer invoked by the Second Continental 
Congress in 1775.
  As reflected in the writings and speeches of our forefathers, prayer 
has had a profound influence not only on the lives of these great 
leaders, but also on the content of the Declaration of Independence and 
other founding documents.
  In his farewell address, President George Washington warned about the 
consequences that will descend on a Nation that excludes religion from 
the public arena. He declared the ``indispensable'' importance of 
religion, and proclaimed that: ``Reason and experience both forbid us 
to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious 
principle.''
  Today, prayer remains very important in our daily lives, not only to 
our society, but to each of us individually as well. It calls to mind 
our actions and helps support us in our daily tasks.
  Today, I ask my colleagues to join with me to continue this tradition 
of prayer and ensure that God remains involved in the affairs of 
leaders of this great Nation.

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