Congressional Invocation | Jan. 4, 2007 | Washington, D.C.

USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J., was invited to offer the Invocation at the opening of the 110th Congress and the swearing in of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

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I recall this morning the story of a poor mother of five children. When she was asked which of her children she loved most, she did not answer the expected, “I love them all the same.” Rather, she bent down and scooped up into her arms a small child with obviously crippling disabilities, “This one,” she said, “because he needs me the most.”

Let us pray. God of compassion and mercy we pray that the new leadership of this Congress and all of its members will write into law the story of a country that measures its success by God’s standard: by how well it cares for the weakest and most vulnerable among us. We pray that legislators of this 110th Congress may challenge, inspire and lead us all to put aside self-interest and pursue the common good of all the people of this great nation of ours, especially of those who “need us the most.” Amen.