FDR's D-Day Prayer
June 6, 2007 | By Jack Yoest
Landing craft at NormandyJune 6, D-Day 1944.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the nation in a six minute prayer. Excerpts follow.
Almighty 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....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 goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas,...help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
...And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade.
...Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.
Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill
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