Wednesday, December 24, 2008
"With God On Our Side"
Prayer For Those In The Armed Forces
Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 823)
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Merry Christmas, Grandmère Mimi.
ReplyDeleteRenz, I'm not sure myself how the post came together, but it worked for me. I hope it works for others.
ReplyDeleteThe Neville version is good, but it's not on YouTube. For some reason, I'm nostalgic for the anti-war songs of the 1960s and early 1970s.
It's been a strange and bittersweet Advent. I'm remembering, with special poignancy, those in my family who are no longer with us. Perhaps that's how Advent is supposed to be, or perhaps there's no way it's supposed to be.
I've never thought of this as a Christmas song, but you're right, when one thinks about that prayer and our soldiers scattered across the land away from their families on this special night, it works quite well.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas, Mimi!
I still play and sing that song, with appropriate ASCAP payments of course. Doing it on the dulcimer is an interesting challenge.
ReplyDeleteI have been wondering the last little while, where the songs are? I was there, long hair and peace signs on my clothes, marching, singing, and generally making noise for peace with S.E. Asia. We wrote songs, modified verses, sang, marched. And for better or worse, we ended the war. We had marched, sang, sat in buses, and ended de jure segregation.
Now all is silence -- no one is marching, no one is writing songs, and no one thinks we are about to end the wars. Now we have the idea that moving troops from Iran to Afghanistan is somehow peace making. The Afghans use live ammo too and they die when we shoot them.
Somehow, I do not understand how, Mr. Obama is supposed to change all this. Even though he is talking about months of continued presence in Iran, and therefore will have ample opportunity to discover, 'new circumstances.' And he has said nothing about an end to the fighting in Afghanistan.
I wonder if the ultra-left wingers in the Democrat Congress were to get its will and institute a draft, would that move the masses towards waking up? We need something to happen here.
FWIW
jimB
Jim, I've wanted to protest, and I've played the songs a lot, but perhaps we've come to see that all the marching, protesting, and singing anti-war songs didn't accomplish much good in the long term. The Vietnam War finally, finally came to end, but here we are in the midst of more wars.
ReplyDeleteRemember how long the Russians were in Afghanistan? The people who live in the country will outlast the foreigners there, too. The only question is how many dead and wounded, and how many of our resources we'll spend before we come to that conslusion.
I believe more folks, especially the young, have come to see that voting is a good thing. I think that it will not be in Obama's power to effect the many changes that we wish for, but even incremental changes will make life better for more people. Tough times make change more of a possibility.
Thus endeth the sermon.