Posted by Emily Sears on Sep 17, 2013 in Military Prayer | Comments Off on Leaders Call for Prayer After D.C. Shooting Leaves 13 Dead
‘I join people of all faiths across our community in praying for the people killed and wounded in the attack,’ said Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
by ADELAIDE MENA/CNA/EWTN NEWS
09/16/2013
Emergency vehicles and law enforcement personnel respond Sept. 16 to shots at the Washington Navy Yard.
– Getty Images.
WASHINGTON — U.S. leaders are offering prayers for the nation following a shooting at the Navy Yard in southeast Washington that left 13 dead and about a dozen more injured.
“I join people of all faiths across our community in praying for the people killed and wounded in the attack at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.,” said Cardinal Donald Wuerl, adding that he is also praying for first responders and for family and friends of the victims.
“While many facts are still unknown, our most powerful tool right now is prayer,” the Washington cardinal said in a Sept. 16 statement. “The Church always calls us to prayer, particularly in moments of crisis. It is what we do best, because it is what the Lord asks us to do.”
Cardinal Wuerl will celebrate a Mass for consolation and healing at 12:10pm Sept. 17 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington.
At about 8:20am on Sept. 16, numerous shots were fired at the D.C. facility, which contains the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command. Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier confirmed that at least 13 people were killed in the shooting, including one shooting suspect, identified by the FBI as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, a military contractor from Texas.
Authorities are asking the public for help in finding more information on Alexis and the shooting.
Police initially said that they were looking for two more potential suspects, but later said they had found and cleared one of the individuals, leaving the other possible suspect at large.
Washington Mayor Vincent Gray told reporters that the motive for the shooting is unclear.
The base and surrounding public schools were placed on lockdown for several hours, according to the Department of the Navy and D.C. city officials.
As the nation confronts “yet another mass shooting,” President Barack Obama said in a Sept. 16 press conference, “we send our thoughts and prayers to all at the Navy Yard who’ve been touched by this tragedy.”
“We thank them for their service. We stand with the families of those who’ve been harmed,” he stated. “They’re going to need our love and support.”
The president said authorities are investigating the shooting in order to “make sure whoever carried out this cowardly act is held responsible” and to prevent similar acts of violence.
Military Archbishop Timothy Broglio said he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the news.
Noting that he has “often visited and celebrated the Eucharist” at the base’s chapel, he added that he “prayed for the victims, the wounded and their families at the noon Mass at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center.”
Archbishop Broglio urged society to “restore the notion of respect for life into the fabric of the nation,” in order to prevent such acts in the future.”
He added, “When the uniqueness of the human person created in the image and likeness of God is universally recognized, the possibility of a mass shooting is more remote.”
Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/leaders-call-for-prayer-after-d.c.-shooting-leaves-13-dead/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NCRegisterPrintEdition+National+Catholic+Register+Print+Edition#ixzz2fATP5a8l
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Posted by Emily Sears on Sep 12, 2013 in Military Prayer | Comments Off on Study: World War II Soldiers Relied on Prayer, Not Returning Home to Loved Ones, for Motivation
By JASON KOEBLER
US News
May 28, 2013
Study finds that reliance on ‘national ideals’ fell during times of heavy combat
When soldiers reported that battles became “more frightening,” as many as 72 percent of them turned to prayer as their primary source of motivation.
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American soldiers in World War II increasingly found motivation through prayer and less often found motivation by the thought of returning home to their loved ones as the war went on, a new analysis of government data has found.
Originally administered in the immediate aftermath of World War II, The American Soldier studies were conducted by the Army’s Information and Education Division. An upcoming analysis of that data, to be published in the Journal of Religion and Health, finds when soldiers reported that battles became “more frightening,” as many as 72 percent of them turned to prayer as their primary source of motivation. When battles were less frightening, just 42 percent of soldiers regularly prayed for motivation.
Those who had “high levels of fear symptoms” were less likely to find motivation by looking forward to the end of the war, feeling hatred toward the enemy, or “thinking of what [they] were fighting for.”
“The thing motivating a lot of these guys, as combat became heavier, was prayer,” says Craig Wansink, a religion professor at Virginia Western College and one of the authors of the study. “That might be what you’d expect, but as the battle became heavier, all of these other factors decreased heavily. There became less trust in national ideals. What surprised us was not that prayer increased but that reliance on other ideals decreased.”
The study may lend some credence to the oft-repeated saying “There are no atheists in foxholes,” but a second part of the study found that once soldiers returned, those who had bad experiences during the war seemed to remain religious.
When surveyed 50 years later, those who faced heavy combat and said they had a bad experience in the war were 21 percent more likely to attend church than those who had a bad experience but faced little or no combat. Those who faced heavy combat but had a positive overall experience were least likely to attend church.
“It’s tough to know why those who had a negative experience attended church more often,” Wansink says. “It may be because they have had a history of relying on a larger community – a band of brothers situation – but it also might have something to do with recognizing that they had a reliance on a greater power during the war.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/28/study-world-war-ii-soldiers-relied-on-prayer-not-returning-home-to-loved-ones-for-motivation
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Posted by Emily Sears on Sep 9, 2013 in Military Prayer | 1 comment
www.marines.mil
September 2013
by Mike DiCicco
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va.
Chaplain David Todd, the Officer Candidates School chaplain, said he had to jump on the chance to bring retired Navy Capt. Stanley Beach to speak at Quantico when he heard that Beach would be in the area.
“He is a hero in the chaplain corps,” Todd said. “He’s a very important part of the heritage and legacy of chaplains, especially chaplains who minister to Marines.”
Todd said Beach is especially renowned for his “ministry of presence,” a style of spiritual leadership that cost the 35-year Navy chaplain a leg and, nearly, his life during his service in Vietnam.
About two dozen chaplains from around the region, including Rear Adm. Margaret Kibben, chaplain of the Marine Corps, gathered at the Clubs at Quantico on Aug. 27 to hear Beach, whose name is now on the Naval Chaplaincy School and Center’s top leadership award, as well as one of the school’s buildings, speak about his experience as a wartime chaplain.
“If you’re not visible to the troops, you don’t need to be available — they won’t look for you,” Beach said, summing up the idea of “ministry of presence.” A chaplain must be on the battlefield, showing that he’s overcome his fear and is committed to his troops, he said. “That means the world to these guys.”
In Vietnam, Beach’s “guys” were the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Division, whom he accompanied during operations around Mutter’s Ridge, just south of the demilitarized zone, where fighting was heavy.
He described days without food or water, taking cover with the Marines in bomb craters during firefights and pulling the dead and wounded to safety without discriminating between the two.
“It was never, ‘Is he OK? Is he alive?’” Beach recalled. “’Did we get him out?’ That’s all they wanted to know.”
He remembered keeping a Marine who’d been shot through the face awake all night in attempt to save his life, and he recalled the time he picked up a rifle despite his noncombatant status after noticing he and a few wounded Marines were being flanked. A Marine remedied the situation with a grenade before Beach had to fire.
Troops feel safer in battle with a chaplain present, he said. “You’re the cosmic rabbit’s foot.”
He remembered helping a Marine who’d been shot through the hand and leg to get to safety and asking him if he wanted to pray. Yes, the Marine said. “And he started praying — praying for me: ‘Protect the chaplain, we need our chaplain,’” Beach recalled. “That’s the kind of people you never forget.”
By the time he was wounded in Operation Prairie, Beach hadn’t eaten in days, he said, and walking was difficult. Having finally received water, he sat next to a spider hole and started reading scripture when everything suddenly “went very silent,” he said. The smell of gunpowder filled his nose, and he noticed his boot lying near his belt.
As he waited to be medically evacuated, lying on a stretcher in a landing zone, his troops had the opportunity to return the dedication he’d shown them. He started to take enemy fire, and a Marine and a corpsman leapt from their foxhole and covered him. One took a piece of shrapnel to the back of his head and is now legally blind.
“If they wouldn’t have come out of their foxhole and covered me …” he trailed off.
“Just the courage, the sacrifice, the compassion — it really makes a mark on your life,” he said.
While he lay in triage, he was comforted just to find that one of his men was also there with him, Beach said. “We make an impact, and you leave an impact. But they make an impact on you, too.”
Now that the military has a better understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder, he said, chaplains are asked to develop healing rituals to help troops returning from deployment to make sense of their experiences.
“Combat is like a defining moment. It clarifies what you already were,” he said, adding, though, that not everyone handles such a moment in the same way. “The chaplain can make the difference. Not every chaplain will make the difference, but you can make the difference.”
Calling Beach “one of our icons in the chaplain corps,” Kibben remembered her first acquaintance with the chaplain, saying her impression of him then was that “this is what a chaplain should be — pastoral, present, intellectual, able to engage at all different levels.”
That was when she arrived as a student at the Naval Chaplaincy School, where Beach was then the director. It was only later, she said, that she learned of his wartime heroism.
http://www.marines.mil/News/InTheNews/tabid/13836/Article/149130/chaplain-corps-legend-speaks-at-clubs-at-quantico.aspx
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Posted by Emily Sears on Sep 5, 2013 in Military Prayer | Comments Off on Missouri overwhelmingly approves a “right to pray” amendment
By Kellie Kotraba,, Religion News Service
USAToday, 8/8/13
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Voters in Missouri overwhelmingly approved a “right to pray” amendment to the state’s constitution on Tuesday, despite concerns about the measure’s necessity and legality.
Amendment 2, which supporters said would protect the freedom of religious expression in public schools and other public spaces, received nearly 80 percent of the vote.
The language on Tuesday’s ballot stressed the rights of citizens to express their religious beliefs and the rights of children to pray and acknowledge God in schools. It also stated that students could be exempted from classroom activities that violate their religious beliefs.
State Rep. Mike McGhee, a Republican who sponsored the amendment, said it would remind people about their religious freedoms, such as reading religious books at school. “It’s OK to bring your Bible to study hall,” he said.
It is not clear how students’ exemption from classroom activities will be regulated. McGhee has said it could vary by age group, but individual school districts will likely create their own policies on the matter.
The amendment was backed by Missouri’s four Catholic bishops and the Missouri Baptist Convention. The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri and several non-Christian groups opposed it. Legal experts almost unanimously predict that the amendment will wind up in court.
Critics also argued the amendment is redundant — theU.S. Constitution already protects religious freedom. And some warned that it would spark countless lawsuits and bring unintended consequences.
“It opens up a can of worms most people don’t want to open,” said Greg Grenke, a 22-year-old voter from Columbia who voted against the amendment. He said he’s not against prayer — he just doesn’t think the amendment was necessary.
Pediatrician Ellen Thomas, 48, said the amendment seemed like propaganda.
“I really just think it’s designed to stir up angry sentiment.” She added, “There’s no infringement on people’s right to pray as it is.”
Kathy Rowland, 55, of Columbia, Mo., said the amendment seemed “well-intentioned,” but unnecessary.
Still, the amendment garnered enough support to pass by a 7-1 margin.
“I was glad to see it,” said Margie Cravens, 87, as she left her Columbia polling place. “And we need prayer now more than ever before.”
Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill voted “yes” on the amendment.
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Posted by Emily Sears on Sep 5, 2013 in Military Prayer | Comments Off on Prayer Statistics
Barna research says slightly more than four out of five adults in the U.S. (84%) claim they had prayed in the past week. That has been the case since Barna began tracking the frequency of prayer in 1993.
U.S. News and the Internet site Beliefnet funded a poll to learn more about why, how, where and when people pray. Here is a summary of the findings:
- 75% percent were Christian.
- 64% say they pray more than once a day.
- 56% say they most often pray for family members, with 3.3% saying that they pray for strangers.
- A little over 38% say that the most important purpose of prayer is intimacy with God.
- 41% say that their prayers are answered often.
- 1.5% say that their prayers are never answered.
- Over 73% say when their prayers are not answered, the most important reason is because they did not fit God’s plan.
- 5% say that they pray most often in a house of worship.
- 79% say that they pray most often at home.
- 67% say that in the past six months, their prayers have related to continually giving thanks to God. (Pastor’s Weekly Briefing, 12/24/04)
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