[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
[May 5, 2005]
[Pages 738-740]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the National Day of Prayer
May 5, 2005

    The President. Good morning, and welcome to the White House. 
Laura and I are honored to join you on this 
important occasion.
    I want to thank Shirley Dobson, the 
chairman of the National Day of Prayer. Thank you for organizing this 
event, and thank you for your wonderful comments. I'm glad to see you 
brought your husband, Jim, with you. [Laughter] 
It's good to have Vonette Bright with us; welcome. I appreciate my 
fellow Texan, Max Lucado, for his wonderful 
prayer. Thank you very much; welcome. I'm glad you and Denalyn are with us. Rabbi, thank 
you for your reading of the psalm. It's good to have your family here; 
welcome. I appreciate Father Charles Pope, 
pastor of St. Thomas More Catholic Church here in DC. Kind of sounded 
more like a Baptist preacher to me. [Laughter]

    Laura and I are proud Methodists, and we're 
pleased to be here with Bishop Peter Weaver, 
who is the president of the Council of Methodist Bishops, who will 
deliver the closing prayer. Thank you.
    It's such an honor to be here with the St. Olaf Choir led by Anton 
Armstrong. You've got such beautiful music. 
Thank you for sharing with us. I'm sure they're having a prayerful 
moment right now--[laughter]--praying that I hurry up and finish because 
they have been standing for quite a while. [Laughter]
    The National Day of Prayer is an annual event established in 1952 by 
an Act of the United States Congress. Yet this day is part of a broader 
tradition that reaches back to the beginnings of America. From the 
landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock to the launch of the American 
Revolution, the men and women who founded this Nation in freedom relied 
on prayer to protect and preserve it.
    Today, prayer continues to play an important part in the personal 
lives of many Americans. Every day, millions of us turn to the Almighty 
in reverence and humility. Every day, our churches and synagogues

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and mosques and temples are filled with men and women who pray to our 
Maker. And almost every day, I am given a special reminder of this great 
generosity of spirit when someone comes up and says, ``Mr. President, 
I'm praying for you.''
    Prayer has been an important part of American public life as well. 
Many of our forefathers came to these shores seeking the freedom to 
worship. The first Continental Congress began by asking the Almighty for 
the wisdom that would enable them to settle things on the best and 
surest foundation. And when our Founders 
provided that sure foundation in the Declaration of Independence, they 
declared it a self-evident truth that our right to liberty comes from 
God.
    And so we pray as a nation for three main reasons. We pray to give 
thanks for our freedom. Freedom is our birthright because the Creator 
wrote it into our common human nature. No government can ever take a 
gift from God away. And in our great country, among the freedoms we 
celebrate is the freedom to pray as you wish or not at all. And when we 
offer thanks to our Creator for the gift of freedom, we acknowledge that 
it was meant for all men and women and for all times.
    Second, we pray for help in defending the gift of freedom from those 
who seek to destroy it. Washington prayed at Valley Forge. Franklin 
Roosevelt sent American troops off to liberate a continent with his D-
day prayer. Today, we pray for the troops who are defending our freedom 
against determined enemies around the globe. We seek God's blessing for 
the families they have left behind, and we commit to Heaven's care those 
brave men and women he has called home.
    Audience members. Amen.
    The President. Finally, we pray to acknowledge our dependence on the 
Almighty. Prayerful people understand the limits of human strength. We 
recognize that our plans are not always God's plans. Yet we know that a 
God who created us for freedom is not indifferent to injustice or 
cruelty or evil. So we ask that our hearts may be aligned with His and 
that we may be given the strength to do what is right and help those in 
need. We who ask for God's help for ourselves have a particular 
obligation to care for the least of our brothers and sisters within our 
midst.
    During the funeral for Abraham Lincoln, Bishop Matthew Simpson 
relayed a story about a minister who told our 16th President that he 
hoped the Lord was on his side. Lincoln wisely replied that he was more 
concerned that he was on the side of the Lord, because the Lord was 
always on the side of right.
    Freedom is a divine gift that carries with it a tremendous human 
responsibility. The National Day of Prayer is a day that we ask that our 
Nation, our leaders, and our people use the freedom we have been given 
wisely. And so we pray as Americans have always prayed, with confidence 
in God's purpose, with hope for the future, and with the humility to ask 
God's help to do what is right.
    Thank you for coming. May God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 9:26 a.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Vonette Bright, former chairman, 
National Day of Prayer Task Force; Max Lucado, 2005 honorary chairman, 
National Day of Prayer, and his wife, Denalyn; and Rabbi Kenneth Auman, 
president, Rabbinical Council of America. The National Day of Prayer 
proclamation of May 3 is listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.

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