Proclamation 2602—Day of Prayer

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

At the end of the year 1943, which has not only made manifest the devotion and courage of our nation's sons but has also crowned their efforts with brilliant success on every battle front, it is fitting that we set aside a day of prayer to give thanks to Almighty God for His constant providence over us in every hour of national peace and national peril.

At the beginning of the new year 1944, which now lies before us, it is fitting that we pray to be preserved from false pride of accomplishment and from willful neglect of the last measure of public and private sacrifice necessary to attain final victory and peace. May we humbly seek strength and guidance for the problems of widening warfare and for the responsibilities of increasing victory. May we find in the infinite mercy of the God of our Fathers some measure of comfort for the personal anxieties of separation and anguish of bereavement.

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby appoint Saturday, the first day of January 1944, as a day of prayer for all of us, in our churches, in our homes, and in our hearts, those of us who walk in the familiar paths of home, those who fight on the wide battlefields of the world, those who go down to the sea in ships, and those who rise in the air on wings.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this 3rd day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:
CORDELL HULL
Secretary of State.