Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Rafael G. Grossman, Baron Hirsch Congregation, Memphis, Tennessee
Sponsor: Senator Howard Baker (R-TN)
Date of Prayer: 16 March 1982
Sponsor: Senator Howard Baker (R-TN)
Date of Prayer: 16 March 1982
Mr. BAKER. Mr. President, I wish to take this opportunity to welcome Rabbi Grossman to the Senate as our guest chaplain. It is a great pleasure to have him here and to hear his inspirational prayer. It is a special honor for me to welcome him as a fellow Tennessean.
I understand that Rabbi Grossman is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his investiture and ordination as a rabbi. We congratulate him for that.
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Our God and God of our fathers,
who, in time of trial and tribulation, sustains us with loving kindness and mercies that never fail. Unto Thee, God of all that lives, do we submit this petition of prayer. |
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As we stand in this august Chamber,
which is man’s shrine of democracy and freedom, we ask that You inspire the hearts of our legislators with wisdom and profound love, as Thy servants here wrestle with problems that affect the weal and woe of this Nation and the world. In times fraught with peril and saddled with designs of evil men, who blaspheme Thy name and Thy word, we beseech Thee to give strength unto this Nation so that its banner of liberty and justice will prevail throughout this land and every land. |
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Thou, who has given unto America prophets of freedom,
who were the incarnation of the blessings of democracy, decency and justice, as Thou hast spoken on Mount Sinai of old, which has made this Nation a light unto all, bring, we pray Thee, this light unto every darkened corner of man’s heart. Let our bells of liberty ring loud for the tired and hungry, the poor and oppressed who yearn to be free. This Nation gives haven to God’s children and binds the wounds of their broken hearts. This Nation which kindled the fires of hope for all people who survived man’s most beastly acts. Six million were annihilated for the sole reason of their faith and birth. Millions more have suffered cruelty only because hate reigned. To the children of the martyred and abused, America said we shall help you and you shall have a land and a friend. For we the American people are our brothers’ keepers. |
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Yes, dear God,
America is a nation and a hope, a dream and a symbol. It symbolizes Your love for all of us, that you gave a land whose flag is red, white and blue; not all red, not all white, not all blue; not all Catholic, not all Protestant, not all Jew, but every faith, every creed, every race, and every way. |
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Today some despair;
today some doubt and though “weeping endures the night,” (Psalms 30:6) and as sure as morning dispels the darkness, so shall the Lord bless this land of the free with a new dawning and a new Sun, whose light will pierce the darkest clouds of human hate and enmity, out of which shall shine forth the great American ideal, and it shall proclaim hope and brotherhood from sea to shining sea, from behind curtains of iron and chambers of incarceration. |
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May the leaders of this land,
its people and ideals, behold for all of us that day when the aspirations of those who believe in Thee are fulfilled, as God’s salvation will be brought to the ends of the Earth. “And all nations which Thou hast made, shall come before Thee, O Lord, and give honor to Thy name.” (Psalms 86:9) Thy name is justice, liberty and righteousness. |
This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the second month of the second session of the 97th US Congress in the Senate, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 128, part 4 (1982), page 4273.
Source(s)
Congressional Record, vol. 128, part 4 (16 March 1982), p. 4273
