As you may recall, I usually offer the opening prayer on the first day of the legislative session.

This year, a prayer was offered in memory of the passing that morning of Steve Sachs, the Attorney General of Maryland from 1979-87.

I offered my prayer this morning, our first floor session since opening day.

I added a sentence to mark the passing of Steve and my mother and their impact on my life.

 

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Those are the words of President Abraham Lincoln, concluding his First Inaugural Address.

These words were spoken of Archbishop Desmond Tutu upon his passing last month:

He was “a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead.”

The chairmanship of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was among Archbishop Tutu’s works.

In this House, we have not seen the partisan rancor that afflicts our fellow legislators in Washington.

In the days before us, may we be guided by the words and the actions of great leaders, such as President Lincoln and Archbishop Tutu — by the better angels of our nature.

And may we remember those who mentored us and mothered us.