President George H. W. Bush’s Capitol Rotunda Ceremony Offers a Glimpse of Grace

The ceremony for the late president began at the Capitol as the sunset. A military guard carried his American-flag-draped casket into the Rotunda, where current and former lawmakers, Cabinet officials, Supreme Court justices, and his family stood to wait. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the opening eulogy for George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States, three days after he had died at his home in Houston. “We stand with you in mourning, but also in gratitude,” McConnell said. “Gratitude for lives well lived and duties thoroughly fulfilled. Gratitude that God gave this country George and Barbara Bush, and that they may now be reunited in the light of His grace.”