Posted on 03/19/2004 12:51:59 PM PST by TEXOKIE
THREE CHEERS FOR OUR WONDERFUL TROOPS, THEIR ALLIES, AND ALL WHO ARE SERVING IN SUPPORT CAPACITIES IN THE WAR ON TERROR! YOU HAVE GIVEN THIS NATION A YEAR OF VICTORY IN THAT WAR! The honor is yours, but know that we bask in your accomplishments and love you for your steadfast service on this day!
Welcome, everyone to the 10th Troop Prayer Thread! Today is the anniversary of the resumption of hostilities with Iraq, wherein our troops have made military history that shall ring down the centuries.
The troop prayer threads are dedicated to giving our troops, allies, and all who are serving the Holy Cause of Freedom, including (but not limited to) the families and loved ones waiting at home and those who are not in uniform but who are serving in dangerous situations supporting our troops and gathering intelligence spiritual support. We seek together to offer prayer, scriptures, encouraging messages, and other devotions dedicated to this purpose.
We have over the past year gathered together a prayer list of these servants of freedom. You will find it posted below. FReeper amom has been serving as our List Keeper this past year and I wish to thank and commend her for doing such a meticulous job of keeping it updated. She has also been keeping our ping list up to date. If you wish to submit a name for the prayer list or to add or take off a name from the ping list, please let either or both of us know.
For those of us who have somewhat limited computer capacity, or still have phone modems, we request that graphics be limited to pictures of loved ones for whom we are offering prayers, special visuals that seem particularly appropriate, and as much as possible, non-moving graphics. Thank you.
Thank you so much for spiritually supporting our troops, allies, support civilians, and their families.
We are grateful to God that for those who have been injured or taken back Home, He has dispatched angels to their care.
To view the previous prayer threads, use these links:
Troop Prayer Thread 9:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1031704/posts
Troop Prayer Thread 8:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/994696/posts?page=451,50
Troop Prayer Thread 7:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/973786/posts
Troop Prayer Thread 6:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/917197/posts?page=301,50
Troop Prayer Thread 5:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/898097/posts
Troop Prayer Thread 4:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/879044/posts
Troop Prayer Thread 3:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/873600/posts?page=151,50
Troop Prayer Thread 2:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/870136/posts
Troop Prayer Thread 1:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/863153/posts
For those who wish to pay their respects and honor our Fallen Heroes, please visit this thread:
Names,Stories, and Pictures of Fallen Heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/872330/posts?q=1&&page=601
Dear Lord,
Lest I continue
My complacent way
Help me remember
Somewhere out there
A man died for me today
--As long as there be war
I then must
Ask and answer
Am I worth dying for?"
Taken from the book, "A Man Called Intrepid" by William Stevenson about William Stephenson, the head of British intelligence services prior to and during WWII. He wrote this at the very beginnings of the Battle of Britain and shared it with Eleanor Roosevelt.
STAR SPANGELED BANNER
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
FRANCES SCOTT KEY
AMERICA, WE LOVE YOU!
AMERICA, WE LOVE YOU!
AMERICA, WE LOVE YOU!
AND OUR LOVE IS GREAT ENOUGH TO HOLD YOU ETERNALLY VICTORIOUS IN THE LIGHT!
Dear Sir:
RC or someone pinged me to the thread.
This is the homily that every Orthodox priest reads at around 2:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday.
I always weep for joy when it is read.
I am glad that it brought you some consolation.
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