Thoughts from a busy pastor + D-day
Over the last couple of years I've moved into a new pastorate at an historic church and my wife has given birth to our first child. It has been a busy time, and so I've done all too little reading, and far less blogging.
But lately I've been graced with a new energy and enthusiasm for reading and contemplation, for which I thank God. I hope to share some thoughts about what I've been learning in upcoming posts.
But just to get things going, I wanted to share a curious thing that happened. A couple of nights ago I kept thinking about that scene in the great WWII film, "The Longest Day", when the German officer at Normandy sees the Allied fleet on the horizon and frantically calls his general to tell him that a thousand ships are bearing down on them. The German General scoffs that the allies haven't got that many.
I woke up the next morning still curious about this scene, so I looked it up on Wikipedia.
How many ships did the Allies have? Some 1200 warships, plus thousands of other craft besides. As I was reading that article I realized that, in fact, it was D-Day - June 6th. I had lost track of the dates.
So, quite unintentionally, I woke up thinking about D-Day on D-Day.
Later that day I heard, on a Christian radio station, a recording of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's prayer for D-Day, which he prayed on a nation radio broadcast, almost like a national priest on behalf of his country, even as the fighting continued in Normandy.
Here is the recording of his prayer. It is remarkable if for no other reason than that it is hard to imagine a US President praying in a live broadcast to the nation this day and age...and certainly hard to imagine him speaking of "our religion", as FDR did in this prayer.
So I hope to have more posts soon. I'm grateful that photobucket has restored the images to this site, and I encourage you (even though D-day is passed now) to listen to this:
But lately I've been graced with a new energy and enthusiasm for reading and contemplation, for which I thank God. I hope to share some thoughts about what I've been learning in upcoming posts.
But just to get things going, I wanted to share a curious thing that happened. A couple of nights ago I kept thinking about that scene in the great WWII film, "The Longest Day", when the German officer at Normandy sees the Allied fleet on the horizon and frantically calls his general to tell him that a thousand ships are bearing down on them. The German General scoffs that the allies haven't got that many.
I woke up the next morning still curious about this scene, so I looked it up on Wikipedia.
How many ships did the Allies have? Some 1200 warships, plus thousands of other craft besides. As I was reading that article I realized that, in fact, it was D-Day - June 6th. I had lost track of the dates.
So, quite unintentionally, I woke up thinking about D-Day on D-Day.
Later that day I heard, on a Christian radio station, a recording of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's prayer for D-Day, which he prayed on a nation radio broadcast, almost like a national priest on behalf of his country, even as the fighting continued in Normandy.
Here is the recording of his prayer. It is remarkable if for no other reason than that it is hard to imagine a US President praying in a live broadcast to the nation this day and age...and certainly hard to imagine him speaking of "our religion", as FDR did in this prayer.
So I hope to have more posts soon. I'm grateful that photobucket has restored the images to this site, and I encourage you (even though D-day is passed now) to listen to this:
posted by Rev. Daniel McLain Hixon at 6/08/2018
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