Prayer on D-Day, June 6, 1944:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\u201cMy fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAnd so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAlmighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nLead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nThey will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nThey will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men\u2019s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nFor these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nSome will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAnd for us at home \u2014 fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas \u2014 whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them \u2014 help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nMany people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nGive us strength, too \u2014 strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAnd let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAnd, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment, let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nWith Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nThy will be done, Almighty God.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAmen.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Roosevelt\u2019s prayer is obviously \u201csub-Christian,\u201d in a sense. \u00a0It\u2019s an expression of American \u201ccivil religion,\u201d as the term has been used. \u00a0Not quite Christian, but still vaguely in the Abrahamic tradition. \u00a0Certainly theistic.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And so it\u2019s simply inconceivable that a president could offer such a prayer today without enormous legal challenges and angry controversy.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
His exhortation to faith, his implicit quotation from the Lord\u2019s Prayer, his declaration that the Second World War was at least partially about \u201cpreserv[ing] our religion\u201d \u2014 these are striking violations of the spirit of our<\/em> age. \u00a0So much the worse for our age.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The seventy-third anniversary of D-Day is approaching, on 6 June. \u00a0I\u2019ll certainly think about it differently this year than I ever have before. \u00a0I\u2019m ashamed to admit that, many years, I haven\u2019t thought of it at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Carentan, Normandy, France<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Being where I am right now, and having spent the day the way I have, I\u2019ve unavoidably thought of the prayer that President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered on 6 June 1944. \u00a0You can listen to it at this link, and here\u2019s the text: \u00a0 Prayer on D-Day, June 6, 1944:\u00a0 \u201cMy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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