WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.), co-chairs of the 65th annual National Prayer Breakfast, co-authored an op-ed for the Washington Examiner detailing the history of the National Prayer Breakfast and highlighting the role it plays in bringing Americans of all backgrounds, faiths, and political parties together through a celebration of spirituality and prayer.

Click here to read the Senators' full article in the Washington Examiner:

Bringing our nation together through prayer

By Chris Coons and John Boozman

Sometimes it feels as though only divine intervention can bring Republicans and Democrats together in Washington. Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast is organized by mere human beings, but it offers America a dose of what's far too often missing here in Congress: an opportunity to celebrate our shared humanity and seek to heal some of our country's deep divisions.

We both participate in the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, a Wednesday-morning senators-only gathering with the Senate Chaplain, where we pray together and share our personal stories, family concerns, and faith journeys with each other. For at least one hour a week, we leave partisan politics at the door.

Senators from a wide range of different faiths and political backgrounds join the Senate Prayer Breakfast each week. Not only does this time of reflection help us build relationships with our colleagues across the aisle by giving us an hour together each week, but it reminds each of us that the human bonds that unite us are, in fact, far stronger than our political disagreements. Dozens of our colleagues in the House of Representatives come together in a similar weekly gathering.

As we've often said, it's hard to throw a rhetorical punch on the Senate floor when you've held hands in prayer earlier in the day. Now, as co-chairs of the 65th annual National Prayer Breakfast, which will take place on Thursday, February 2, we hope Delawareans, Arkansans, and all Americans will join us in celebrating an event that seeks to offer our nation a respite from the grind of partisan politics.

For the last 65 years, the National Prayer Breakfast has brought together religious, political, and cultural leaders in a celebration of spirituality. Since 1953, every U.S. president, from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Reagan to Obama, has attended and spoken at the breakfast. In December, we traveled to New York to extend an invitation to President Trump, and he will join us to address the 3,000 attendees from more than 130 countries who plan to attend this year.

The National Prayer Breakfast plays an important role every year, and at a time of profound and sometimes seemingly intractable political divisions, it's worth taking a moment to highlight any issue or event that brings Republicans and Democrats together. This is especially true for members of Congress, who sometimes seem even more divided than the country we serve.

This year, following an election that often felt unprecedented in its divisiveness and acrimony, we believe Americans of all backgrounds and faiths will be well-served by an inclusive, positive, forward-looking event that seeks to bring us together. From the freedoms of religion and speech that are etched in our Constitution, to the traditions, institutions, and norms on which our democracy depends, the National Prayer Breakfast is a living example of some of our nation's most fundamental principles.

In his brief speech addressing the first breakfast in 1953, President Eisenhower urged attendees to "remind ourselves once in a while" to hold our heads high, preserve the essentials of a free government, and pass this nation to the next generation "as sound, as strong, as good as ever."

"That," Eisenhower said, "is the prayer that all of us have today."