In honor of this Memorial Day weekend, I would like to offer a prayer that was given on the floor of the California State Senate by Rev. Torrance Phelps, the
Senate Chaplain in 1945. He offered this prayer on April 30, 1945, during the final days of the war in Europe.
o God of Glory:
Let us today look with new eyes upon the American Flag, whose glamourous beauty thrills us, and whose stars and stripes are the symbols of the history and ideals of America.
Let us glorify the red stripes that represent the sanguinary sacrifices of the legion of heroes who fought and died for our republican institutions, the red that flowed from Bunker Hill and Valley Forge to Gettysburg and Chateau Thierry, and the red that flowed from Normandy to Attu and the South Seas.
May the white represent the ideals of character, the white light of purity and goodness, the white light of Intelligence, and the bright light that streams from
liberty, justice, and equality of opportunity.
May the blue symbolize the spirit of fidelity which Nathan Hale exemplified and the fidelity which died on Guam rather than surrender, the fidelity which scoffed at the ring of steel at Bastogne and the fidelity which stayed at the post of duty like our martyred President, and the fidelity which today subordinates self interest in our own hearts to the general good of the Country.
May the stars in their own field of blue remind us of the many States in the Union, with their own local ambitions and interests that vie with ours, and that North and South, and East and West, must all be one and one for all.
God grant that this glorious banner, to which we pledge allegiance, may forever wave over a land of free men, who prize their blood-bought liberties, and who will ever strive for its unsullied glory.--AMEN.
