The Story of Roosevelt’s D-Day Prayer—The World's Largest Mass Prayer

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Brought to you by Argenix. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] And we continue here with our American stories. Up next, the story of President Roosevelt's D-Day prayer and why it mattered to him and the nation. It was a few minutes before 10 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, June 6, 1944, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt commenced his radio broadcast to an anxious nation. Earlier that day, Americans learned that our soldiers, airmen, and seamen were embarked on an invasion of massive proportions in Europe to liberate the continent from Hitler's war machine.

They crawled out of the sea and dropped from the sky. 160,000 Allied troops landing along a heavily fortified 50-mile stretch of French coastline, supported by more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft. The stakes couldn't have been higher. The nature of the battle could not have been more clear. The fate of the free world hung in the balance. Earlier that day, the president held a press conference for more than 180 reporters about D-Day, but provided no operational detail. He instead expressed confidence in the operation's outcome. By 9.57 p.m., it was time for the president to speak directly to the nation about the invasion of Normandy.

Roosevelt understood that it would take more than just the mobilization of our industrial power to beat back the forces of Hitler. He hoped to harness our spiritual power, too, which is why his 535-word six-minute radio address took the form of a prayer, a prayer Roosevelt himself wrote with the assistance of his daughter Anna and her husband. Here is how the prayer began. 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. Roosevelt then shifted his prayer to the difficulty of the months and years to come and the sacrifices our troops and our nation would endure, the suffering, loss, and grief that was likely to come.

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 goodwill among all nations. 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. Roosevelt then turned to Americans at home, pleading with them to continue with their prayers and to make any and all sacrifices to support America's fight to liberate Europe. 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 to strengthen 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 travel 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. Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. And this is how Roosevelt ended things.

It may be the most powerful and purposeful ending of any public address by any American wartime president. 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 scheming of unworthy men, and a peace that will let all men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen. Over 100 million people worldwide heard Roosevelt's plea over the airwaves, including many living in Nazi-occupied Europe. One teenage Jewish girl hidden in a tiny corner of Holland was one of those millions. When she heard the American president's prayerful voice invoking Almighty God, it gave her hope. Her name? Anne Frank. Here's what she wrote in her diary that day. The best part about the invasion is that I have the feeling that friends are on the way.

The thoughts of friends and salvation mean everything to me. Churches and synagogues in America were open 24 hours a day to handle the spiritual demands of Americans seeking strength and comfort, and they would continue to be a spiritual source of strength and resolve throughout the war. As for the costs of the invasion, Roosevelt was right. More than 4,400 Americans never returned home on that opening day of fighting. By the time the battle for Normandy had been won, 29,000 lives had been lost. 100,000 were wounded or missing in action.

416,000 Americans would lose their lives, defending the world from tyranny. America's industrial strength, our mineral and energy resources no doubt played a part in the Allied victory. So too did the courage and selflessness of our troops, black and white, from every ethnic background, along with the sacrifices of so many millions of Americans on the home front. But the spiritual power, the prayer power of our people, was a resource too. It helped us endure and prevail, providing peace in the midst of chaos, hope in the midst of hopelessness. The story of the largest mass prayer in American history and world history too.

Roosevelt's D-Day prayer. This is our American Stories. I have a way to make your morning more efficient. You can get caught up on the news in about seven minutes. That is my promise to you as the host of The 7 podcast from The Washington Post. And in that time, I will run down seven stories, everything from the most important headlines to fascinating new information you might miss otherwise.

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