A Nation's Prayer

American songsmith Irving Berlin was a Jewish immigrant from Russia who came to America to escape religious persecution. He loved his new country and its freedom, and while serving in WWI he expressed that love in a song he wrote as a prayer. He did not publish the song, however, but tucked it away with his belongings. In 1938, celebrity singer Kate Smith asked him to write a song for her radio show for Armistice Day. With the evils of Hitler’s Germany on the rise, he knew it was time to bring out his prayer song. So on her show, Kate Smith sang for the first time Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”

Let’s make the words of this great song our prayer for our nation this very day:

God bless America, land that I love

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with the light from above

From the mountains to the prairies

To the oceans white with foam, 

God bless America, my home sweet home

God bless America, my home sweet home.