PRINTER'S NO. 3495
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
835
Session of
2020
INTRODUCED BY BOROWICZ, MARCH 23, 2020
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, MARCH 23, 2020
A RESOLUTION
Designating March 30, 2020, as "A State Day of Humiliation,
Fasting and Prayer" in Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, On March 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln
proclaimed April 30, 1863, as a National Day of Humiliation,
Fasting and Prayer; and
WHEREAS, Since March 11, 2020, the United States has been in
a time of crisis; and
WHEREAS, During the pandemic of 2020 and the ensuing
uncertainty and anxiety of this time, Pennsylvanians may be
comforted by turning to a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer
as well as the wise words of our great President Abraham
Lincoln; and
WHEREAS, The House of Representatives devoutly recognizes the
Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God in all the
affairs of men and of nations; and
WHEREAS, It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own
their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess
their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow; and
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
WHEREAS, With assured hope that genuine repentance will lead
to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth,
announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that
those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord; and
WHEREAS, Insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations
like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement
in this world; and
WHEREAS, May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of
the pandemic, which now desolates this Commonwealth may be but a
punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the
needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?; and
WHEREAS, We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties
of Heaven and we have been preserved these many years in peace
and prosperity; and
WHEREAS, We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no
other nation has ever grown; and
WHEREAS, But we have forgotten God and we have forgotten the
gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and
enriched and strengthened us; and
WHEREAS, We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our
hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior
wisdom and virtue of our own; and
WHEREAS, Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become
too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!;
and
WHEREAS, It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the
offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for
clemency and forgiveness; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That House of Representatives designate March 30,
20200HR0835PN3495 - 2 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
2020, as "A State Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer" in
Pennsylvania; and be it further
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives request that all
Pennsylvanians abstain on that day from their ordinary secular
pursuits, and to unite, at their respective homes, in keeping
the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of
the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That we then rest humbly in the hope authorized by
the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be
heard on high and answered with blessing no less than the pardon
of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and
suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and
peace.
20200HR0835PN3495 - 3 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14