July 4, 2014.

• The Forgotten Flag of the American Revolution and What It Means, by Daniel Hanneman. National Review. [Hat tip: David Griffey]. "That [The Grand Union Flag] has been almost excised from America’s collective memory tells us a great deal about how the story of the Revolution was afterward edited. ... The American Revolution was motivated not by a rejection but a reaffirmation — indeed, an intensification — of British national identity."
• The Declaration of Independence Annotated, by Randy Barnett. Volokh Conspiracy.
• Liberty or Equality? - The Founding Fathers knew that you can’t have both, by Myron Magnet. City Journal Spring 2014.
• Independence Day: No future without evangelization, by Dr. Jeff Mirus (Catholic Culture). "If you are a reflective American, I’d imagine you find it hard to observe Independence Day. It is simply too hard to avoid this question: 'Independence from what?'"

Happy Independence Day

• The Declaration of Independence ("Charters of Freedom" - National Archives)

• Speech on the Occasion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, by President Calvin Coolidge. July 25, 1926. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

  ... Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.

  About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

• Archbp. Carroll’s “Prayer for Government” (Fr. John Zuhlsdorf) A prayer composed by John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore, in 1791. He was the first bishop appointed for the United States in 1789 by Pope Pius VI. He was made the first archbishop when his see of Baltimore was elevated to the status of an archdiocese. He was also cousin of Charles Carroll of Maryland, a Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.

• 10 Things You Should Know About the American Founding (Catholic World Report) - Bradley J. Birzer, author of American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll (ISI, 2012) reminds us of a number of interesting facts about the era of our Founding Fathers.

Memorial Day

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, let thy protection be upon all those who are in the service of our country; guard them from all harm and danger of body and soul; sustain and comfort those as home, especially in their hours of loneliness, anxiety, and sorrow; prepare the dying for death and the living for your service; give success to our arms on land and sea and in the air; and grant unto us and all nations a speedy, just and lasting peace. Amen.

-- Prayer in Time of War

Happy Independence Day!

• The Declaration of Independence ("Charters of Freedom" - National Archives)

• Speech on the Occasion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, by President Calvin Coolidge. July 25, 1926. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

  ... Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.

  About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

• Archbp. Carroll’s “Prayer for Government” (Fr. John Zuhlsdorf) A prayer composed by John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore, in 1791. He was the first bishop appointed for the United States in 1789 by Pope Pius VI. He was made the first archbishop when his see of Baltimore was elevated to the status of an archdiocese. He was also cousin of Charles Carroll of Maryland, a Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.

• 10 Things You Should Know About the American Founding (Catholic World Report) - Bradley J. Birzer, author of American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll (ISI, 2012) reminds us of a number of interesting facts about the era of our Founding Fathers.

Veteran's Day

War is a curious part of the human condition. It is a summary of the worst that Man is capable of: violence on a massive scale, cruelty, greed, hatred, and the magnification of every human vice. Few of us are more “anti-war” than those who have had the misfortune to fight in one and witnessed all the folly, loss and endless pain produced by the inability of men to frequently resolve their differences without resort to the sword. Yet, in war we also see men rise to the heights of what we are capable of at our best: self-sacrifice, courage, love and the magnification of every human virtue. War as the direst of human institutions is to be bitterly regretted, but we must ever pay homage to those who find themselves in this terrible maelstrom and acquit themselves with honor.

And so on Veteran’s Day we honor all those who took time out from their regular lives to stand between the rest of us and danger. We especially remember those silent heroes who paid the ultimate price for us and who never came home. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) Our gratitude, praise and thanks is small enough compensation, but it is the poor best we can give. We are creations of a loving God, and when we return love for love we demonstrate that.

-- Donald R. McClarey, American Catholic

Happy Independence Day!

John Trumbull's Declaration of Indepenence, commissioned 1817.

• Declaration of Independance - read the transcript and the history of the founding document of our nation (Library of Congress) | learn more about the battle for its preservation (PBS NOVA)

• Catholic Sources and the Declaration of Independence by Rev. John C. Rager. The Catholic Mind XXVIII, no. 13 (July 8, 1930), looks at synergies between the thought of Aquinas and Bellarmine and that expressed in the Declaration, asking: "Did Jefferson know of Bellarmine?"? (In How Catholic is the Declaration of Independence?, Commonweal takes a look at the "Scholastic-roots-of-democracy theory"; and CatholicHistory.net provides a bibliography on Catholics and the American Founding).

• Carl Olson interviews Dr. Bradley J. Birzer, author of American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll (Ignatius Insight) | Learn more about our Catholic founding father

• What do Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI think about the American Founding?.

• Discover the riches of The Federalist Papers - by way of a commentary by Paul Zummo (The Cranky Conservative), who maintains: "I absolutely believe that an understanding of the Federalist Papers is essential for understanding the U.S. Constitution and, therefore, understanding America."

• Listen to Johnny Cash recite "I am the Nation".

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day, folks! -- Here is a roundup of some choice reads as we commemorate the birth of our nation:

• Because it's worth reading again: The Declaration of Independence - view high-resolution images of the original. (This is a part of the "Charters of Freedom", an exhibit of the National Archives, on the documents that shaped our history.

• Catholic Sources and the Declaration of Independence by Rev. John C. Rager. The Catholic Mind XXVIII, no. 13 (July 8, 1930), looks at synergies between the thought of Aquinas and Bellarmine and that expressed in the Declaration, asking: "Did Jefferson know of Bellarmine?"? (In How Catholic is the Declaration of Independence?, Commonweal takes a look at the "Scholastic-roots-of-democracy theory"; and CatholicHistory.net provides a bibliography on Catholics and the American Founding).

• Learn about Charles Carroll -- America's Catholic Founding Father (Against The Grain).

• What do Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI think about the American Founding?.

• Discover the riches of The Federalist Papers - by way of a commentary by Paul Zummo (The Cranky Conservative), who maintains: "I absolutely believe that an understanding of the Federalist Papers is essential for understanding the U.S. Constitution and, therefore, understanding America."
• Listen to Johnny Cash recite "I am the Nation".

Following are two books which I heartily recommend for some engaging historical reading of the American Revolution and our founding fathers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

• Jay Anderson gives us a history lesson on "The First Thanksgiving":

  Every gradeschool boy and girl in the U.S. will confidently tell you that their history books say that the very first Thanksgiving on American soil took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621 when the English Pilgrims who had arrived the year before and the Patuxet Indians shared the food from their respective harvests in one great big happy feast.

  As is often the case, however, the history books are wrong on this account. ...

• The Maverick Philosopher engages in a thanksgiving reflection:

  We need spiritual exercises just as we need physical, mental, and moral exercises. A good spiritual exercise, and easy to boot, is daily recollection of just how good one has it, just how rich and full one's life is, just how much is going right despite annoyances and setbacks which for the most part are so petty as not to merit consideration. ...

• How Private Property Saved the Pilgrims -- When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, they established a system of communal property. Within three years they had scrapped it, instituting private property instead. Hoover media fellow Tom Bethell shares some economic history.

• News has it that President Obama's decision whether to pardon a turkey could come at any day now!

• And it wouldn't be the celebration of another American holiday without a screed from the Catholic Anarchist (this time reaching the height of self-parody).

Evangelical Catholicism: John Paul II, Patriotism & Nationalism

Michael Joseph (formerly of Vox Nova), his wife Katerina and several of his friends are resurrecting the blog Evangelical Catholicism.

He commemorates the 4th of July with a thoughtful reflection on the nature of patriotism as distinguished from nationalism, with recourse to John Paul II's Memory and Identity.

Well worth reading.

Pope Benedict XVI and John Paul II on America's founding

From the dawn of the Republic, America’s quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the Creator. The framers of this nation’s founding documents drew upon this conviction when they proclaimed the “self-evident truth” that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights grounded in the laws of nature and of nature’s God. The course of American history demonstrates the difficulties, the struggles, and the great intellectual and moral resolve which were demanded to shape a society which faithfully embodied these noble principles. In that process, which forged the soul of the nation, religious beliefs were a constant inspiration and driving force, as for example in the struggle against slavery and in the civil rights movement. In our time too, particularly in moments of crisis, Americans continue to find their strength in a commitment to this patrimony of shared ideals and aspirations. ...

Historically, not only Catholics, but all believers have found here the freedom to worship God in accordance with the dictates of their conscience, while at the same time being accepted as part of a commonwealth in which each individual and group can make its voice heard. As the nation faces the increasingly complex political and ethical issues of our time, I am confident that the American people will find in their religious beliefs a precious source of insight and an inspiration to pursue reasoned, responsible and respectful dialogue in the effort to build a more humane and free society.

Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience – almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad. The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate. In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good (cf. Spe Salvi, 24). Few have understood this as clearly as the late Pope John Paul II. In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, he reminded us that history shows, time and again, that “in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation”, and a democracy without values can lose its very soul (cf. Centesimus Annus, 46). Those prophetic words in some sense echo the conviction of President Washington, expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent “indispensable supports” of political prosperity.

Excerpts from the White House Welcoming Ceremony Pope Benedict XVI (Apostolic visit to the United States April 16, 2008).

* * *

You represent a nation that plays a crucial role in world events today. The United States carries a weighty and far-reaching responsibility, not only for the well-being of its own people, but for the development and destiny of peoples throughout the world. With a deep sense of participation in the joys and hopes, the sorrows, anxieties, and aspirations of the entire human family, the Holy See is a willing partner in every effort to build a world of genuine peace and justice for all. ...

The Founding Fathers of the United States asserted their claim to freedom and independence on the basis of certain "self-evident" truths about the human person: truths which could be discerned in human nature, built into it by "nature’s God." Thus they meant to bring into being, not just an independent territory, but a great experiment in what George Washington called "ordered liberty": an experiment in which men and women would enjoy equality of rights and opportunities in the pursuit of happiness and in service to the common good. Reading the founding documents of the United States, one has to be impressed by the concept of freedom they enshrine: a freedom designed to enable people to fulfill their duties and responsibilities toward the family and toward the common good of the community. Their authors clearly understood that there could be no true freedom without moral responsibility and accountability, and no happiness without respect and support for the natural units or groupings through which people exist, develop, and seek the higher purposes of life in concert with others.

The American democratic experiment has been successful in many ways. Millions of people around the world look to the United States as a model in their search for freedom, dignity, and prosperity. But the continuing success of American democracy depends on the degree to which each new generation, native-born and immigrant, makes its own the moral truths on which the Founding Fathers staked the future of your Republic. Their commitment to build a free society with liberty and justice for all must be constantly renewed if the United States is to fulfill the destiny to which the Founders pledged their "lives . . . fortunes . . . and sacred honor."

Respect for religious conviction played no small part in the birth and early development of the United States. Thus John Dickinson, Chairman of the Committee for the Declaration of Independence, said in 1776: "Our liberties do not come from charters; for these are only the declaration of preexisting rights. They do not depend on parchments or seals; but come from the King of Kings and the Lord of all the earth." Indeed it may be asked whether the American democratic experiment would have been possible, or how well it will succeed in the future, without a deeply rooted vision of divine providence over the individual and over the fate of nations.

John Paul II on the American Experiment - excerpts from Pope John Paul II's words to the Honorable Lindy Boggs as Ambassador to the Holy See on December 16, 1997.

65th Anniversary of D-Day

On June 6th we commemorate the anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy -- conveying our thanks to those who fought and died for the liberation of Europe, and the world, from the Nazis.

Many stories and reflections will be shared today. Here are just a few.

As remembered by Capt. John G. Burkhalter, former Miami minister and chaplain with the "Fighting First" division in France:

On one occasion we were near some farm houses and some large shells began to fall, so several of us near a stone barn dashed into it to get out of the way of shrapnel. Just inside was a mother hen covering her little chicks. When we hurried in she became frightened and fluffing her feathers rose up to protect her young. I looked at her and silently said, "No, mother hen, we are not trying to hurt you and your little family, we are trying to hurt each other."

Nobody can love God better than when he is looking death square in the face and talks to God and then sees God come to the rescue. As I look back through hectic days just gone by to that hellish beach I agree with Ernie Pyle, that it was a pure miracle we even took the beach at all." Yes, there were a lot of miracles on the beach that day. God was on the beach D-Day; I know He was because I was talking with Him.

Memorial Day 2009

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, let thy protection be upon all those who are in the service of our country; guard them from all harm and danger of body and soul; sustain and comfort those as home, especially in their hours of loneliness, anxiety, and sorrow; prepare the dying for death and the living for your service; give success to our arms on land and sea and in the air; and grant unto us and all nations a speedy, just and lasting peace. Amen.

-- Prayer in Time of War

64th Anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy (D-Day)

• First Wave at Omaha Beach, by L.A. Marshall. The Atlantic November 1960. (Via Powerline):

  His men are at the sides of the boat, straining for a view of the target. They stare but say nothing. At exactly 6:36 A.M. ramps are dropped along the boat line and the men jump off in water anywhere from waist deep to higher than a man's head. This is the signal awaited by the Germans atop the bluff. Already pounded by mortars, the floundering line is instantly swept by crossing machine-gun fires from both ends of the beach.

  Able Company has planned to wade ashore in three files from each boat, center file going first, then flank files peeling off to right and left. The first men out try to do it but are ripped apart before they can make five yards. Even the lightly wounded die by drowning, doomed by the waterlogging of their overloaded packs. From Boat No. 1, all hands jump off in water over their heads. Most of them are carried down. Ten or so survivors get around the boat and clutch at its sides in an attempt to stay afloat. The same thing happens to the section in Boat No. 4. Half of its people are lost to the fire or tide before anyone gets ashore. All order has vanished from Able Company before it has fired a shot.

  Already the sea runs red. ...

  Of the cinematic attempts to capture what it was like for those men on that fateful day, I think Stephen Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan captures it. At least, that is what I recall from accounts of World War II veterans who have seen it, particularly the first fifteen minutes. It drove home in a vivid manner both the sheer brutality of war and the tremendous, heroic sacrifice of these men, to liberate a country and a continent from a great evil.

• President Ronald Reagan on the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landing in Normandy (June 6, 1984) [Audio]:

  "We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. . . .

  The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt. You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you. The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They thought -- or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

• Cardinal Ratzinger on the 60th anniversary of D-Day Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:

  On the 6th of June, 1944, when the landing of the allied troops in German-occupied France commenced, a signal of hope was given to people throughout the world, and also to many in Germany itself, of imminent peace and freedom in Europe. What had happened? A criminal and his party faithful had succeeded in usurping the power of the German state. In consequence of such party rule, law and injustice became intertwined, and often indistinguishable. . . . And so it was that the whole world had to intervene to force open this ring of crime, so that freedom, law and justice might be restored.

  We give thanks at this hour that this deliverance, in fact, took place. And not just those nations that suffered occupation by German troops, and were thus delivered over to Nazi terror, give thanks. We Germans, too, give thanks that by this action, freedom, law and justice would be restored to us. If nowhere else in history, here clearly is a case where, in the form of the Allied invasion, a justum bellum worked, ultimately, for the benefit of the very country against which it was waged.

  Let us say it openly: These politicians took their moral ideas of state and right, peace and responsibility, from their Christian faith, a faith that had undergone the tests of the Enlightenment, and in opposing the perversion of justice and morality of the party-states, had emerged re-purified. They did not want to found a state upon religious faith, but rather a state informed by moral reason, yet it was their faith that helped them to raise up again a reason once distorted by, and held in thrall to ideological tyranny.

Related:

• "June 6th", by DarwinCatholic:

  In 24 hours the Allies landed as many soldiers as are currently in Iraq, and suffered as many casualties as we have in five years. Through great bravery, and in the face of incredible suffering. As with so many others who have, throughout history, found themselves having to stand firm in the face of death -- I don't know how they did it, other than that they had to.

Memorial Day 2008

"Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It's a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It's a day to be with the family and remember." Ronald Reagan, Memorial Day 1986

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat The soldier's last tattoo; No more on life's parade shall meet That brave and fallen few. On Fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead. "Bivouac of the Dead", Theodore O’Hara.

• Their service came not as a burden but as a duty. The Daily Demarche on the origins of Memorial Day:

  In 1918 Moina Michael penned "We Shall Keep the Faith" in response to John McCrae’s "In Flanders Field" (both poems can be found at the end of this post) launching the idea of wearing a poppy on the 30th of May in remembrance of our fallen warriors. While Memorial Day has existed as a federal holiday since only 1966, the practice of honoring America’s war dead dates to at least the Civil War . . .

• "Fallen, But Never Forgotten" - ongoing series at Black Five.

• Legacy.com: In Remembrance - to remember and honor American service members lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. Currently, 3,839 service members are honored on this site.

• Stars and Stripes lists some ways to support servicemembers, with links to many charities and services for our veterans. (See also Blackfive's compilation of groups who work dilligently to support our military personnel in many different and positive ways).

• The Last Doughboy George Will profiles Frank Buckles, the last remaining living veteran of World War I.

• "To Live with Honor" - National Review recognizes Mike Spann, the first American to die on a foreign field of battle in the War on Islamic Terror.

• From Bishop Fulton Sheen's Wartime Prayerbook:

  The great French preacher Lacordaire once said the vocation of a soldier is next in dignity to the priesthood, not only because it commissioned him to defend justice on the field of battle and order on the field of peace, but also because it called him to the spirit and intention of sacrifice.

  Initially compiled during World War II, a new edition of was republished in 2003 by Sophia Institute Press. (Read an excerpt from Sheen's Wartime Prayerbook).

  

• Bagpipes Cryin' - Based on a poem written by Commander Mark Waddell, as a tribute to the SEALS he lost in the Middle East. Set to music by Tim Rushlow:

  "I had three of the four guys on the ground that died that day. I was so heartbroken after I passed out all the flags at the memorial service. I was just thinking about the bagpiper, who is also a retired SEAL captain, standing there literally crying the song out of the bagpipes. We were all so sad. When I came home my wife said I should write down some words. Tim called me and asked how I was doing. I told him I wrote this poem and he said well let me have it. We went back and forth on the phone and decided to make it a tribute to everyone from World War II to the present."

  Stumbled across an old green box in my granddaddy's house Inside was a cross some old dog tags and a picture of when he was shipping out. So I showed it to him said "tell me about those days" When he looked inside he closed his eyes all he could say was: "I hear bagpipes cryin' Amazing Grace Omaha Beach and her crashing waves. Old Glory draped like Heaven's mercy over the fallen sons. I see all the heroes who were willing to fight in the name of freedom layin' down their lives. And prayin' God's grace would keep us safe from harm until they brought us boys back home." Those words to a boy that became a man now I'm ankle deep in this Persian sand. And every day I'm giving all I can because I'm damn proud to be American Yeah, I made some friends and I've lost some too When I think about what they gave for me and you

* * * Today's roundup goes out to all of our brave men and women serving our nation in all branches of our Armed Forces. And especially to my young brother Nathan (US Navy) and to my grandfather, Maas Vanderbilt (U.S. Army).

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, let thy protection be upon all those who are in the service of our country; guard them from all harm and danger of body and soul; sustain and comfort those as home, especially in their hours of loneliness, anxiety, and sorrow; prepare the dying for death and the living for your service; give success to our arms on land and sea and in the air; and grant unto us and all nations a speedy, just and lasting peace. Amen.

-- Prayer in Time of War

63rd Anniversary of D-Day

Today marks the anniversary of D-Day -- the beginning of the Battle of Normandy and the Allied liberation of Europe from the Nazis.

D-Day - as remembered by LTC John G. Burkhalter, former Miami minister and chaplain with the "Fighting First" division in France:

On one occasion we were near some farm houses and some large shells began to fall, so several of us near a stone barn dashed into it to get out of the way of shrapnel. Just inside was a mother hen covering her little chicks. When we hurried in she became frightened and fluffing her feathers rose up to protect her young. I looked at her and silently said, "No, mother hen, we are not trying to hurt you and your little family, we are trying to hurt each other."

Nobody can love God better than when he is looking death square in the face and talks to God and then sees God come to the rescue. As I look back through hectic days just gone by to that hellish beach I agree with Ernie Pyle, that it was a pure miracle we even took the beach at all." Yes, there were a lot of miracles on the beach that day. God was on the beach D-Day; I know He was because I was talking with Him.

President Ronald Reagan on the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landing in Normandy (June 6, 1984) [Audio]:

"We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. . . .

Cardinal Ratzinger on the 60th anniversary of D-Day Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:

On the 6th of June, 1944, when the landing of the allied troops in German-occupied France commenced, a signal of hope was given to people throughout the world, and also to many in Germany itself, of imminent peace and freedom in Europe. What had happened? A criminal and his party faithful had succeeded in usurping the power of the German state. In consequence of such party rule, law and injustice became intertwined, and often indistinguishable. . . . And so it was that the whole world had to intervene to force open this ring of crime, so that freedom, law and justice might be restored.

We give thanks at this hour that this deliverance, in fact, took place. And not just those nations that suffered occupation by German troops, and were thus delivered over to Nazi terror, give thanks. We Germans, too, give thanks that by this action, freedom, law and justice would be restored to us. If nowhere else in history, here clearly is a case where, in the form of the Allied invasion, a justum bellum worked, ultimately, for the benefit of the very country against which it was waged.

Let us say it openly: These politicians took their moral ideas of state and right, peace and responsibility, from their Christian faith, a faith that had undergone the tests of the Enlightenment, and in opposing the perversion of justice and morality of the party-states, had emerged re-purified. They did not want to found a state upon religious faith, but rather a state informed by moral reason, yet it was their faith that helped them to raise up again a reason once distorted by, and held in thrall to ideological tyranny.

Memorial Day 2007

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat The soldier's last tattoo; No more on life's parade shall meet That brave and fallen few. On Fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead. "Bivouac of the Dead", Theodore O’Hara.

• Their service came not as a burden but as a duty. The Daily Demarche on the origins of Memorial Day:

  In 1918 Moina Michael penned "We Shall Keep the Faith" in response to John McCrae’s "In Flanders Field" (both poems can be found at the end of this post) launching the idea of wearing a poppy on the 30th of May in remembrance of our fallen warriors. While Memorial Day has existed as a federal holiday since only 1966, the practice of honoring America’s war dead dates to at least the Civil War . . .

• Private Robert J. Dixon: Ordinary Soldier, American Hero, by Jeff Emanuel (Redstate.com).

• "Fallen, But Never Forgotten" - ongoing series at Black Five.

• Legacy.com: In Remembrance - to remember and honor American service members lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. Currently, 3,839 service members are honored on this site.

• Stars and Stripes lists some ways to support servicemembers, with links to many charities and services for our veterans. (See also Blackfive's compilation of groups who work dilligently to support our military personnel in many different and positive ways).

• From Bishop Fulton Sheen's Wartime Prayerbook:

  The great French preacher Lacordaire once said the vocation of a soldier is next in dignity to the priesthood, not only because it commissioned him to defend justice on the field of battle and order on the field of peace, but also because it called him to the spirit and intention of sacrifice.

  Initially compiled during World War II, a new edition of was republished in 2003 by Sophia Institute Press. (Sheen's Wartime Prayerbook is also available online in its entirety).

• Bagpipes Cryin' - Based on a poem written by Commander Mark Waddell, as a tribute to the SEALS he lost in the Middle East. Set to music by Tim Rushlow:

  "I had three of the four guys on the ground that died that day. I was so heartbroken after I passed out all the flags at the memorial service. I was just thinking about the bagpiper, who is also a retired SEAL captain, standing there literally crying the song out of the bagpipes. We were all so sad. When I came home my wife said I should write down some words. Tim called me and asked how I was doing. I told him I wrote this poem and he said well let me have it. We went back and forth on the phone and decided to make it a tribute to everyone from World War II to the present."

  Stumbled across an old green box in my granddaddy's house Inside was a cross some old dog tags and a picture of when he was shipping out. So I showed it to him said "tell me about those days" When he looked inside he closed his eyes all he could say was: "I hear bagpipes cryin' Amazing Grace Omaha Beach and her crashing waves. Old Glory draped like Heaven's mercy over the fallen sons. I see all the heroes who were willing to fight in the name of freedom layin' down their lives. And prayin' God's grace would keep us safe from harm until they brought us boys back home." Those words to a boy that became a man now I'm ankle deep in this Persian sand. And every day I'm giving all I can because I'm damn proud to be American Yeah, I made some friends and I've lost some too When I think about what they gave for me and you

* * * Today's roundup goes out to all of our brave men and women serving our nation in all branches of our Armed Forces. And especially to my young brother Nathan (US Navy) and to my grandfather, Maas Vanderbilt (U.S. Army).

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, let thy protection be upon all those who are in the service of our country; guard them from all harm and danger of body and soul; sustain and comfort those as home, especially in their hours of loneliness, anxiety, and sorrow; prepare the dying for death and the living for your service; give success to our arms on land and sea and in the air; and grant unto us and all nations a speedy, just and lasting peace. Amen.

-- Prayer in Time of War