FDR’s D-Day Prayer Still Calls For A Response

National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

For all the greatness that is to be found in the American canon of rhetoric, I find myself constantly returning to and being stirred up by FDR’s D-Day prayer.

Widely called “A Mighty Endeavour” for what Roosevelt dubbed Operation Overlord to the public in the opening line, the radio address was most of the country’s first notice that Allied troops where on the ground in France. With the time difference involved, almost a full day of the invasion was underway, and FDR opened up with an explanation that during the previous night’s broadcast he had known that H-Hour on D-Day had passed, and the matter was in the balance. By the evening of June 6th, Washington, D.C. time, FDR left the invasion at “it has come to pass with success thus far” without further comment.

Written mostly before the invasion started with input from his daughter and son-in-law, the text was publicly released so that FDR’s imploring for the country to join him could be achieved.

“My 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.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

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.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They 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.

They 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’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For 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.

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 — whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them–help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many 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.

Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And 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.

And, 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.

With 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.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.”

In our age of monetized hyperbole, there is something striking in the words and thoughts of those making the decisions when the fate of the world really was in the balance. Reading Eisenhower’s handwritten note taking full and sole blame if the Normandy landings were a failure pierces through the marble and myth of the heroic leader and shows the man who felt the weight of a suffering world hanging on his decision.

FDR, by mid 1944 physically frail from a lifetime of illness and the longest presidency America will ever see, would be dead in less than a year. While rumors about his health always ran wild, Roosevelt was still able to deliver a few key performances such as “Mighty Endeavor” and the 1944 State of the Union to — at least PR-wise — quell them. FDR opened that SOTU address with the unflinching declaration that “This Nation in the past two years has become an active partner in the world’s greatest war against human slavery.” Roosevelt ended that speech with an equally clear challenge for what was to come: “Each and every one of us has a solemn obligation under God to serve this Nation in its most critical hour—to keep this Nation great — to make this Nation greater in a better world.”

Six months later and with the troops ashore in France, FDR continued on the broader themes beyond just defeating the Axis powers. Notable in FDR’s D-Day Prayer is the lack of naming the present enemy of Hitler’s Nazis or Imperial Japan, but instead marking the worst parts of human nature that spawned them. He called not for the conquering of Germany and Japan, instead pleading for divine help and challenging at his temporal audience “to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies.” The hope was for ” a sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men.”

That prayer goes unanswered, not through any fault of the Almighty or lack of appeals to do so through the soaring words of great leaders, but because our world never lacks for unworthy schemers nor apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Not only do we have them, but most of them have social media, a whole different type of battlefield the audience of the fireside radio chats couldn’t begin to comprehend.

Whatever ills the world in whatever era of history you want to look at, from strife to war to poverty to whatever, it is human nature that is the biggest enemy to humanity. The unchecked self that can scheme the darkest of things and excuse and justify each step down that road, losing more and more perspective along the way. Humanity’s ability to destroy itself in the name of selfish interests weaves through all the dark parts of history.

It is proper then to take notice that in the dark days when it was all in the balance FDR looked to the bigger picture, the wider perspective, the long view of the human struggle. It’s a challenge clearly laid out in FDR’s D-Day Prayer “Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us.” Be that an election, or cultural debate, or civil strife and unrest, the long view of what the world could be and the need to control our own worst nature to get there has to be balanced, wrestled with, overcome, day in and day out.

“To make this nation greater in a better world” is as fine a standard as rhetoric could provide. Greatness, whether personal or for America, measured in the temporal matters of fleeting moments not only deters but leads us astray. Is the fight of the moment leading to a better you, a better family, a better community, a better country, a better world? Or is it self-serving those parts of human nature that should be kept in check despite the instant gratification such indulgences bring.

Such moments of decision do not amount to giving the “let’s go” command to launch Operation Overlord like Eisenhower did, nor are they the physical and moral courage the troops that stormed the beaches in Normandy used to carry the day. They are moments that require each and every one of us to be faithful in the little things, with the integrity of doing the right things unseen, before publicly demanding our way in the big things with any sort of entitlement.

You know, the honest toil of getting the most people possible living in peace and freedom, and paying whatever sacrifice is required to ensure that honest toil is justly rewarded, as others did for us.

We should do more of that, and less of the things that detract from that worthy goal.

So help us, God.