Americans in every generation have turned to their Maker in prayer.
In adoration and in thanksgiving, in contrition and in supplication,
we have acknowledged both our dependence on Almighty God and the
help He offers us as individuals and as a Nation. In every circumstance,
whether peril or plenty, whether war or peace, whether gladness
or mourning, we have searched for and sought God's presence and
His power, His blessings and His protection, His freedom and His
peace, for ourselves, for our children, and for our beloved land.
That was surely so at the very beginning
of our Nation, in the earliest days of our quest for independence
and liberty. It could
only be thus, for a people who recognized God as the Author of
freedom; who cherished the ancient but ever new words of Leviticus, "Proclaim
liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" and
who cast those words where they would ring out forever, on the
Liberty Bell; who affirmed along with Thomas Jefferson that God
Who gave us life gave us liberty as well.
So did they believe, those who gathered
in Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia in 1774, the members of the
First Continental Congress.
They had come together, in times that tried men's souls, to deliberate
in the united interests of America and for our "civil and
religious liberties." John Adams later wrote his wife Abigail
about what followed: "When Congress first met, Mr. Cushing
made a motion that it should be opened with prayer." Some
delegates opposed the motion, citing differences in belief among
the members; but Sam Adams, that bold lover of liberty and our
country, arose to utter words of healing and unity.
"I can hear the prayer," he said, of anyone "of
piety and virtue who is..a friend to his country." He went
on to suggest that a clergyman of a persuasion other than his own
open the First Continental Congress with prayer.
And so it happened. Because Sam Adams gave voice to all the goodness,
the genius, and the generosity that make up the American spirit,
the First Continental Congress made its first act a prayer-the
beginning of a great tradition.
We have, then, a lesson from the Founders
of our land, those giants of soul and intellect whose courageous
pledge of life and future
and sacred honor, and whose "firm reliance on the protection
of Divine Providence," have ever guided and inspired Americans
and all who would fan freedom's might flames and live in "freedom's
holy light." That lesson is clear- that in the winning of
freedom and in the living of life, the first step is prayer.
Let us join together, Americans all, throughout our land. Let
us join together, in factories and farms, in homes and offices,
in places of governance and places of worship, an din outposts
everywhere that service men and women defend us. Let us, young
and old, join together, as did the First Continental Congress,
in the first step-humble, heartfelt prayer. Let us do so for the
love of God and His great goodness, in search of His guidance and
the grace of repentance, in seeking His blessings, His peace, and
the resting of His kind and guidance and the grace of repentance,
in seeking His blessings, His peace, and the resting of His kind
and holy hands on ourselves, our Nation, our friends in the defense
of freedom, and all mankind, now and always.
By joint resolution of the Congress approved April 17, 1952, the
recognition of a particular day set aside each year as a National
Day of Prayer has become a beloved national tradition.
NOW, THEREFORE I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States
of America, do hereby proclaim May 5, 1988, as a National Day of
Prayer. I call upon the citizens of our great Nation to gather
together on that day in homes and places of worship to pray, each
after his or her own manner, for unity in the hearts of all mankind.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this third day
of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-eight
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twelfth.