through many dangers, toils and snares i have already come; 'tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home. ♪ when we've been there ten

thousand years bright shining as the sun we've no less days to sing god's praise than when we first begun

>> will hold a gospel of our lord jesus christ according to matthew -- seeing the multitudes, jesus went up into a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. he opened his mouth and it taught them blessed are the poor and spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

blessed are they which to wonder and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god. blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of god. blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shell said all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your report in heaven, for the profits which

are before you, the gospel of the lord. >> praise be to crest. --christ. [no audio]

>> betty ford was my friend and i am honored to be here today to help celebrate the life of this truly remarkable woman. i never imagined when we first met 40 years ago that we would develop such a close personal friendship. at that time, that was the wife of the vice president of united states and she danced with martha graham dance company and performed in carnegie hall. she was a leader in the fight for women's rights and she had come to georgia with the michigan art train. jimmy was governor and we invited betty to stay at the governor's. i was nervous. she was the most distinguished guest we have ever at but when

she arrived, she was so warm and friendly that she immediately put me at ease and we had a good time together. of course, i did not tell her than that my husband was thinking of running for president. [laughter] the next time i met that he was at the white house shortly after the 1976 election. it might have been a very awkward moment. i know from personal experience but it was a difficult time for us. she was just betty. , as grateful as always. as i assumed the responsibility to firstly, i had an excellent role model and a tough act to follow. betty broke new ground in speaking out on women's issues, her public disclosure of her own battle with best cancer lifted the veil of secrecy from this terrible disease. she used the influence of the office of first city to promote

early detection and millions of women are in her debt today. she was never afraid to speak to the truth. even about the most sensitive subject incurred -- including her own struggle with alcohol and painkillers. she got some criticism. i thought she was wonderful and her honesty she gave to this every single day. for example helped me recover from jimmy's loss in 1980. she worked tirelessly as the former first lady to establish the betty ford center. she showed me that there is life after the white house and it can be a very full life. in 1984, we both participated in a panel at the ford presidential library on the road of first

ladies. -- on the role of first ladies. addictive diseases and mental health came together in many ways and we knew we could be a stronger force it to work as partners and we did for many years. sometimes traveling to washington to travel -- to work for our cause is. s. i am so glad she lived to see this happen. we did not get everything we wanted but we got a good start. i know that made her as happy as it made me. we talked about she would grab the republicans and i would rather play democrats -- i would round up the democrats and were affected most of the time. [laughter] after the 1984 conference, betty ford wrote me a note that i still treasure where she broke about women who had the courage

of her -- of their conditions and did with others were too timid to attend. this was the most the program description of that, someone who is willing to do things a bit differently than they had been done before, someone who had the courage and grace to fight fear, a stigma, and prejudice wherever she encountered it. it is almost impossible today to imagine a time when people were afraid to reveal that had cancer or to speak publicly about personal struggles with alcohol or addiction. she was a tireless advocate for those struggling, some struggling alone, ashamed to seek help. it was a privilege to work with her to bring an addiction and mental health problems into the light. historians have said that our husbands developed a closer relationship and the other presidents after leaving the white house. i think betty and i had a

similar relationship. in closing, i want to add that betty and i shared another passion -- our husbands and their family. her partnership with jerry public and private have healed a nation and strengthen the family unit in its many forms. the love of her children, michael, degette, stephen, and susan was unbounded. her grandchildren were a source of constant pleasure. when we got together later in life, we talked about our hopes and dreams for her children and grandchildren and our great grandchildren. to you here who mourn loss of her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother today, ginny and i extend our most sincere sympathies and wanted to know of a deep love and respect we have for this extraordinary woman. it was my privilege to know her,

thank you. [no audio]

>> good afternoon, i m jeff. i am an alcoholic. betty, we are all here now. some of us here have been working toward this day for quite some time, as you know. that is what happens when you are the first family. people have to be ready, ready to honor you in just the right way. ready to remember you in just the right way. ready to describe our memories of you in just the right way. ready to pray for you and your family in just the right way. but many of us here today, i

dare say perhaps most of us here today, have no recollection at all of you, betty, as first family or, perish the thought, of the u.s. first lady. i never knew you that way. i think i can speak for thousands of us who reclaim our lives just a few short miles from here. we never knew you that way. we knew u.s. mrs. ford, founder, or chair, lecturer, hour upon the present phase of recovery here in the desert, in grand rapids, in vail, on larry king,

"good morning, america," so many other tv shows, and then on campus. we got to know you as betty. we saw you in the rooms. we listened to you tell stories about your own feelings, your own kilts, you're on ups, your own downs, your own memories of loneliness and fear and shame and we could relate to that, betty. we felt close to you for that. all of a sudden, it was ok for

us to have those feelings because you made us understand that it did not have to be that way anymore. and so, we were embarking on this journey together with you but it was very scary. we had no clue how to operate or do anything, made without vodka. i had no clue that it was possible to fill any other way other than scared to deat, hysterical. i had no clue that there was a way out of my desperate loneliness and my overwhelming guilt.

but i remembered what you told us the first week we were here back in september of 1983. i remember you said it did not have to be that way anymore, that it had been that way for you and that by listening to your counselor's down in long beach and by opening up to other patients who were there with you and by speaking openly and honestly with your love and family and friends, each day began to get better. as you slowly learned how to peel away those horrifying feelings of sadness, of ander, and killed. d guilt. you said something i have never

forgotten. you said you had discovered that you were allergic to alcohol. that rang the bell for me. that, betty, made it understandable. i could grasp allergic. so we began to understand that if you could do it with all the pressures on you every day living in the white house for goodness sake with the leader of the free world, maybe, just maybe if we worked at it like you told us to, maybe we could also get some relief from the darkness that we had become almost comfortable with from the

abyss that we had fallen into, from, yes, hell. so, day-by-day, one by one, and the loving care and protection of your amazing stat of of volunteers, we began to understand maybe, just maybe, if i do what they tell me, if i do as you told us you did, betty, maybe there is hope. maybe there is relief today, tonight when i finally go to sleep. if i can go just one more day without a drink, just one day like you said, excuse me, strange time to pick that up,

wasn't it? [laughter] in just one day like you said, then maybe i will be able to field just a tiny bit better and so off we went. on this journey into the wilderness called treatment. off we went, scared, angry, scared, lonely, scared, terrified but the warm and loving embrace that you end leonard and vision so many years ago at this incredible plays of hearing began to take hold. -- incredible place of hearing began to tickle. lectors, groups, meetings, a group, jobs, group, journal,

group, pool aerobics, a group, feed the ducks, group. my goodness gracious, we were beginning to learn that it was actually ok to trust each other, that it was actually ok to be ourselves, that the process of purging ourselves of those decades of poison, that was actually possible to walk away from our toxic behavior and that the more confident we were able to build within ourselves and the more we watched and listened to your regular talks

to us of reassurance and support, the more we began to understand what this thing recovery was all about. as the years have changed and as the world has changed more than any of us would ever have believed, the wisdom and support we take every day from the rooms has guided us in the right way and you were the one who introduced us to a -- to this, betty. you were the one who helped us understand we can walk with god, we can walk together, each and every day and our lives will be better. what a gift to us, to several generations of those like us who

need help and to just need to learn how to generate the a little pride and self-respect. what a gift ! what a profound legacy. i remember you saying so often, don't thank me, thank yourself. your the one who is doing it without help. ok, then, thank you, thank you, god for bringing us this extraordinary lady, this brave and inspirational pioneer into our lives, all of our lives, even those who have not experienced the gift of treatment or recover, all of us are supremely better for having known you, betty, for having

been inspired by you and for having shared love with you. may god now grant you the piece and reward that you helped so many of us learn about and experience. yes, got grace upon new -- god's grace upon you, dear betty. the world is so much a better place for your having been here with us. you will never know how much we miss you and, oh yes, before i finish, please give your boyfriend a hug from us. lord knows we miss him, to. godspeed, betty, but gogodspeed.

[no audio] >> how honored i am to be in this beautiful church with this

magnificent choir before so many distinguished people who have served and continue to serve our country, especially the ford family. and to talk about this wonderful woman. when mrs. ford assigned me the daunting honor of speaking at her funeral, it would come a surprise to none of you that the assignment came with instructions. [laughter] mrs. ford wanted me to remind everyone of the way things used to be in washington and that would not be at all surprised if she timed her death to make sure that she could convey the message this week when it seemed so badly needed. [laughter] the couple of months ago when the statue of president ford was unveiled in the legal -- regal rotunda of the united states capitol, the four children record happily their days

playing hide and seek under the watchful gaze of george washington and having times rolling those secrets basis of the capital, sometimes coming up on something truly spooky and forms of the most vivid memories that many of us congressional brats. there are many others we share. we all have the strom thurmond stories, talk about spooky. [laughter] he was there most of our lives. al gore tells about senator thurmond stepping on his truck and a first met him. our girls have different stories. [laughter] centre came out in the 1960's rather than the 1950's, susan, i don't know if you had to parade down runways for good causes. at one time, one of the women actually scored a coup by

scoring robert kool-aid to croon "if ever i should leave you." citizens mother escaped none of those 1950's ritual. my mother remembers that she and betty ford performed in every fashion show was that they were the same size of the models were, that is small. i must say that in the retrospectives over the weekend, it brought back my earliest memories of how incredibly beautiful betty ford was. our mothers were involved in the congressional club so many of us put in time at the dancing schools. even some of the boys had to do that. we all got copies of the congressional club cookbook as wedding presents. mrs. ford's vichy's was is not that.

class items of the names of members of congress at into them were present. [laughter] it is very nice anyway. it looks like a stall the plate from their office. the worst present was the department of agriculture yearbook. true story. [laughter] we all have fathers who were away a lot and others who ran everything and will grunt and giggle together about it because we were all friends and that is what betty ford wanted me to talk about here today. a couple of years before he died, i came here to the desert to interview president ford on a series of former presidents and the constitution. when we turn the cameras off, the president turned to me and he said," i don't know what's going on today in washington. i just don't understand it. when your father was majority leader and i was minority

leader, we would get together on the hill and go downtown like the press club and we would talk about what we would argue about. it was a real debate. we had different views about means to an end in a generally disagreed and we were certainly part a said. after we went at it, we would get back in the cab together and the best friends." by that time, they had drivers. with all remembered the wonderful drivers. the point is the same perio. that friendship made governing possible. they did not question each other's motives for their commitment to the country. underlying those across the aisle and across the dome, congressional friendships was among the waters.

over the last few days, we approach for the celebrated betty ford for her incredible courage in the face of her own challenges and the impact that courage has had upon millions of lives. in her wisdom, she knew that the part of her life that would be given little notice would be her many years as a partner of a member of the house of representatives. that is why she asked me to talk about it. it was a top job, more often political with other than political wife. the duties range from showing visiting constituents around the capital. it was a big deal in those days when somebody travel from michigan or louisiana to washington. if she helped him run the social services programs in washington. in the days before home rule, it was the political was working with the african-american women to -- women who live there who stitched together a safety net for the citizens of the nation's capital. there was always the challenge to the political wife of figuring out how to entertain on

no money at all and, of course, she was expected to be the perfect wife and mother. mrs. ford plays all those roles. cub scouts and dead mother's sense week until you have tried it. [laughter] she was a leader in the congressional was prayer group and get her official title as it was for most political wives was a housewife. it was a title she shared with many american women and it gave her a great understanding about what women's lives were like. she said it wants,"being a good house what seems to be much tougher job than going to the of us and getting paid for it." she was giving words to the dirty little secret that men always knew. over the years, she spoke out more forcefully for women's rights. she strongly defended the house what role -- the housewife's

role. no wonder women all over the country had spent this past weekend love in her and that. anew. one talent that wives were expected to cultivate was that of first great campaigner of who we have a few here. it was suspended the wives of house members, the house-wives who face an election every two years who had to really learn how to campaign. by the time he ran for president, gerald ford supported the elected betty ford bus husbands buttons but people in michigan were expecting -- or expressing that sentiment for years. the constant campaigning brought political wives together even if

they were on different sides. they had the same complaints and that meant they forged tight connections that extended to the men as well. they would bring the men together, serve them drinks and a good meal, listen to their stories, and make them behave. some of that good behavior carried over to the corridors of congress. it was a role that political wives had played since the beginning of this republic and has worked. now former presidents and members all get together nicely and it is nice getting together after the fact. we wish some of you would come together before hand. [laughter] the friendship between my mother and betty ford spent more than 60 years. it became especially close when the couple's made their historic trip to china in 1972. i asked my mother yesterday which she and mrs. ford did on that trip. at first, she joked that she is

not sure she wanted to tell. [laughter] then she let up, remembering one day when just the two of them went out without a good interpreter and they're getting frustrated about their inability to communicate. finally, mrs. ford turned to mama and said, "what difference does it make?" mama left at the memory and said of course she was right at issue was about everything. it was only a few months later that my father's plan was lost over alaska and the fords were devastated. they were so attentive to our family. mrs. ford was really undone and yet she spent some much time shoring up my mother through that period and my mother said softly yesterday,"she was such a great help to me."

these women hold each other and their husbands and hounded us children and they helped the nation. they regularly conspired to convince their lawmaker made to pass legislation that would help educate and care for children, house old and poor people, improve health outcomes for all, and, yes, give equal rights to wittman. the betty ford support for the equal rights amendment did not become full-blown as first lady. she had been pushing this for years and made sure her husband got the message. president ford told me years later that he had a lot of pressure politically on the outside but inside my own family. mrs. ford was a very ardent supporter of equal rights for women and he used to get a lecture is quite frequently. he got pushed to act on the floor of the house in favor of it and he did. he voted for it and he thought was a good approach but it was a very controversial provision.

there is your midwestern understatement. as susan said in an interview, been firstly did not change her mother. it gave her a podium to stand on to express the views she had formed in her years as a congressional wife. betty ford also always know when to step off the podium and how to avoid the worst of labels for any woman of the era, especially the political wife. she was never strident. she could use her candid good humor to diffuse any discussion about whether she was overstepping her bounds as first lady, some of you have never heard anything about. [laughter] at the national press club, she told the man assembled -- the women in the press were confined to the balcony -- she told the man they had often heard her said that whatever makes jerry happy makes me happy. if you'll believe that, you are in deep and worthy of your profession. [laughter]

she had them and she made it look easy. it was not easy. through betty for its courage, we later learned just how hard those years were. mrs. ford had something very important going for her, she knew who she was. before her sudden ascension to first lady, she said," i will do the best i can and if they don't like it, they can kick me out but they cannot make maybe somebody i am not." she knew, like her friends the other congressional women, she knew that her husband could not be who he was if she were not who she was. president ford gave me a glimpse of the importance of that strength when he told me," the night before i took the oath of office, i held betty's and repeated together are proverbs. i made the unforgivable mistake of failing to ask which proverbs. i know which one he and all this

say today. it is of course the goodwife. she opened her mouth was wisdom and in her tongue is below of kindness. she looks to the ways of her household and eats not the bread of by thomas. -- and each not the bread of idleness. her husband praises her. many daughters have done virtuously but you that sell them all. favre is deceitful and beauty is bay in but a woman that fears the lord shall be praised. give her the future -- fruit of her hand and let her own works praise her in the gates. your works, all of them over many years, praise you, betty ford. this congressional brought along with the rest of the country, especially the women who have been keeping this republic, thank you.

[no audio] >> in the name of the holy an undivided trinity, amen. it has been a lifelong dream of mine to be the fifth of five speakers than warm room immediately following cokie roberts. [laughter] today is the day. agnostic folksinger susan werner may have had it right in her 2007 song," probably not." she sayings think of that easter day when they rolled the stow away and the apostles said they had seen jesus by the city wall.

st. thomas' part was pure and he said yeah, sure and that's what st. thomas the group as the apostle of all. you will recall that he is famous for his doubting. he is not certain but if he is it is notusgrooviest, because he lacks trust. he said unless i see the mark of the male in his hands -- of the nail in his hands i put my finger in the mark of the nail in my hand in his side, i will not believe. this is not about faith inlessness. thomas needed to touched the wound.

hearing the story second hand is not good enough. even seeing is not enough unless i put my finger in the wounds and my hand in his side, i will never believe. thomas is onto something. he does not suggest that he does not want to believe. he does not suggest that there are no wounds to put his hand on. he understands something that is lost to all the others, resurrection life involves touching the wounds. resurrection does not make those wounds go away. resurrection gives the woman's power -- gives the wounds power when they touch people like the one leopard intend to turn around to thank jesus for killing him, thomas understands that his own healing is somehow

connected to turning back, to giving banks, to putting his on hand on jesus' of wounds. it makes a difference because thomas had a wound or two himself. it may have been physical or they may have been wounds of the soul, the kind that call out to us at night and tell us that we are ugly, that we are stupid, that we have no will power, that we are sick, or that we have been bad. , that we are not liable, that the love that we do feel is secret or shameful, that we deserve the pay and that we feel. these are the wounds of the great lie, but will instead obscured our ability to see

ourselves the way god sees us as beloved children, as made in god's own likeness. these are the ones that leave us groping in a spiritual darkness, afraid to open our eyes too wide and once afraid that meeting -- we might never see or that we might get a good look at ourselves and be unable to bear the sight. this is not a hypothetical type of wound. this is lostness that describes the wounded souls of millions of people and its strength is not help. those who look strong on the outside don't, in fact like the way. more often, the strong are loveless noise gongs and clanging symbols.

enter into that darkness, betty ford. her own wounds by now are well documented in public together with her courage, with her clarity of thought, her imagination, her capacity to put others at ease by risking connection to great joy and two deep wounds. yesterday, as i watched in here as a friend of mrs. ford briefed the honor guard about what they should expect when they encounter the ford family, he said the force will not only speak to them but will inquire with sincere interest about how they are doing, about how their work is going, about how they came to be assigned here today. they will ask these things because that is who they are.

that is how they were brought up. in short, betty ford had taught her own family to be christ- like. she changed lives not only by the example of her joys and her struggles but by allowing those of us who have no business doing so to touch her wounds and find the healing in them. little secret about weakness and strength is that we are affected in a weakness not in ours reap -- we are perfected in a witness not in our strength. in our weakness, god allows us to touch the wounds that are all too familiar to us. by those loans to be healed -- by those wounds to be healed. when others accounted --

encountered her, betty ford characteristically would return the gratitude with good wishes but point out that each person who had found her way to health through recovery did the heavy lifting on her own. thank you, she would say and there is some truth in wisdom in that -- and wisdom in that. betty ford did not kill millions of people by her own strength but by turning around -- betty ford did not feel millions of people by her own strength but by turning around her own example and let them touch her wounds. many people in this room are alive for that very reason. lives changed, even say, are hard to measure and hard to count. cause and effect is never as

neat as one would like. we never know how many people experience the novelty of hope because they have watched betty ford there her own wounds with an exacting combination of candor and grace. where shame and fear were stared down at the embrace of an uncertain future. we will never know how many people learned first from betty ford. to use the leverage of truth telling and recovery and not moral failure. women of a certain europe -- of the certainera were taught with that there are places a lady does not go on escorted. we will never know how many women moved unescorted only by betty ford's example. the new and profound gospel

truth that we now hold to be self-evident, of this -- of the is that women are created equal to men, that their dignity is god-given and that there are new and better ways to be a lady, a first lady like betty ford. to mike, jack, steve, and susan, we commend your mother is dear soul to our lord who knows her wounds and her home as well because he dared to touch god's own life and poured out for others, to command herrmann's opening the gates of heaven long and wide to admit countless throngs of angels she carries in tow. living and waiting, who found

their way through cold darkness but the life of christ, she took to herself and shared so generously. think of that easter day when they were s bustone away and -- when they rolled the stone away. her heart was. she'syeah, sure and that is what betty ford was the grooviest first lady of all. in the assurance of the eternal life given at baptism, let us stand and proclaim our own fate and say together -- -- are on faith and say together -- i believe in one god, the father almighty, maker of heaven and

earth and in jesus christ, his only son our lord, who was conceived by the holy ghost, born of the virgin mary, suffered under pontus pilots, was crucified and died and was buried and descended into hell the third day he rose again from the debt. he ascended into heaven and sets on the right hand of god the father almighty. from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead and believe in the holy ghost, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting, amen. >> the lord be with you. let us pray. our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be the. and in thy kingdom come, thy

will be done on earth as it is. have a give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for the line is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, amen. [no audio]

[no audio] >> granted to all who mourn a share of confidence in your father care that casting all their grief on you, they may know the consolation of your love, amen. >> give courage and faith to those who are be reached that they may have strength to meet the days ahead in comfort of a reasonable and wholly pope, in the joyful expectation of

eternal life with those they love, amen. >> o god, the king of saints, week prison glorify your holy name for all your servants who have finished their course in your faith and fear, for the blessed virgin mary, for the holy patriarchs, profits, and mortars out for all your other righteous servants known to was an unknown. amen. >> and we pray that encouraged by their examples, aided by their peers, and strengthened by the fellowship, we may also be partners in the inheritance and the saints in light of their merits -- through the merits of your son jesus christ, amen.

>> grant, oh lord, to all who who have the strength to meet the days to come with said fest patients. in thankful remembrance of your great goodness and in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love. in this we ask in the name of jesus christ our savior, amen. >> almighty god, father of mercy and giver of comfort, so bracelet we pray with all the more that casting all their care in you been in of the consolation of your love for jesus christ our lord, amen. >> grant us praise to and trust grandma our never failing love and receiver into the arms of

your mercy and remember her according to the favre you bear on to your people, amen. >> god, grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference. living one day at a time enjoin one moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace, taking, as he did, the simple world as it is, not as i would have it, trusting that he

will make all things right if i surrender to his will. that i may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with him forever in the next, amen. ♪ ♪

>> give rest, of christ, to your service. though only are immortal, the creator and maker of make -- mankind and we are mortal, formed of the earth and onto earth shall we return for so about did or did and went out created me saying dust thyous art and to dust that shall return. we go down to the dust yet even at the great we make our song alleluia.

unto thy hands we commend our servants body would humbly beseech thee. receive her into the arms of the mercy, into the blessed rest of the everlasting peace and the glory and co. of the saints in light, amen. the got a piece who brought again from the dead our lord jesus christ, the great shepard of the sheet, through the blood of the everlasting covenant make a perfect in every good work to do his will. working in you that which is pleasing in his site and the blessing of god almighty as the father, son, and holy spirit be among new and remain with you always. amen. >> let us go forth in the name of christ. >> thanks be to god. ♪

>> first lady betty ford died on friday at the age of 93. she will be buried beside her husband, president gerald ford, on thursday. fed chairman ben bernanke presents the report to congress for its live coverage from the house financial services committee is on c-span 3 at 10:00 eastern. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> and a few moments, today's headlines and your phone calls live on "washington journal." the house is in session at 10:00 eastern with legislativ