The True Story of The Patton Prayer

The Patton Society ^ | 6 October 1971 | Msgr. James H. O'Neill

[flowerjoyfun]

It is so important that President Bush is reelected. Those who are for Kerry will stop at nothing; they are not interested in truth, the protection of America and the freedom, which we enjoy. Anti Bush people are only interested in reacquiring power for their own personal enjoyment and exploitation. For such a situation General Patton has some terrific and proven advice, "There are three ways that men get what they want; by planning, by working, and by Praying. Any great military operation takes careful planning, or thinking. Then you must have well-trained troops to carry it out: that's working. But between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes. Some people call that getting the breaks; I call it God. God has His part, or margin in everything, That's where prayer comes in."

[My2Cents]

"In Gideon's day, and in our own, spiritually alert minorities carry the burdens and bring the victories."

The same is true today.

[theDentist]

And he was also known for his poetry:

Through a Glass, Darkly
General George Patton

Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.

In the form of many people
In all panoplies of time
Have I seen the luring vision
Of the Victory Maid, sublime.

I have battled for fresh mammoth,
I have warred for pastures new,
I have listed to the whispers
When the race trek instinct grew.

I have known the call to battle
In each changeless changing shape
From the high souled voice of conscience
To the beastly lust for rape.

I have sinned and I have suffered,
Played the hero and the knave;
Fought for belly, shame, or country,
And for each have found a grave.

I cannot name my battles
For the visions are not clear,
Yet, I see the twisted faces
And I feel the rending spear.

Perhaps I stabbed our Savior
In His sacred helpless side.
Yet, I've called His name in blessing
When after times I died.

In the dimness of the shadows
Where we hairy heathens warred,
I can taste in thought the lifeblood;
We used teeth before the sword.

While in later clearer vision
I can sense the coppery sweat,
Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery
When our Phalanx, Cyrus met.

Hear the rattle of the harness
Where the Persian darts bounced clear,
See their chariots wheel in panic
From the Hoplite's leveled spear.

See the goal grow monthly longer,
Reaching for the walls of Tyre.
Hear the crash of tons of granite,
Smell the quenchless eastern fire.

Still more clearly as a Roman,
Can I see the Legion close,
As our third rank moved in forward
And the short sword found our foes.

Once again I feel the anguish
Of that blistering treeless plain
When the Parthian showered death bolts,
And our discipline was in vain.

I remember all the suffering
Of those arrows in my neck.
Yet, I stabbed a grinning savage
As I died upon my back.

Once again I smell the heat sparks
When my Flemish plate gave way
And the lance ripped through my entrails
As on Crecy's field I lay.

In the windless, blinding stillness
Of the glittering tropic sea
I can see the bubbles rising
Where we set the captives free.

Midst the spume of half a tempest
I have heard the bulwarks go
When the crashing, point blank round shot
Sent destruction to our foe.

I have fought with gun and cutlass
On the red and slippery deck
With all Hell aflame within me
And a rope around my neck.

And still later as a General
Have I galloped with Murat
When we laughed at death and numbers
Trusting in the Emperor's Star.

Till at last our star faded,
And we shouted to our doom
Where the sunken road of Ohein
Closed us in it's quivering gloom.

So but now with Tanks a'clatter
Have I waddled on the foe
Belching death at twenty paces,
By the star shell's ghastly glow.

So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.

And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o'er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought.

So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more.

[exit82]

Lord, hear our prayer.President Bush is a man who is unafraid to admit his dependence on Your Divine Power.

Our times are in Your Hands. We ask You to bless our efforts to reelect a man who is not ashamed of You, rather than to see a man come to power that is ashamed to protect the ones who are the most innocent amongst us, and who will not uphold Your principles for society, such as marriage between one man and one woman.

We have seen throughout our 228 year history as a nation that You have divinely ordained this country to be a light for freedom and for spreading the Gospel to the world. In our great and longterm abundance, we have forgotten the source of our strength and protection. We humbly ask for Your forgiveness, and for Your blessings to once again bring our land to a new level of righteousness and brotherhood.

With thanks for Your help in times past, and with our dependence on Your help for the times to come, we put ourselves in Your Hands to guide us. In the name of Jesus, who is above all names, we ask these things. Amen.

[ClearCase_guy]

Then he cracked me on the side of my steel helmet with his riding crop. That was his way of saying, "Well done."

Not a girlie-man. Dems take note.

[Beau Schott]

There is much anecdotal evidence which indicates that General George Patton held himself to be the reincarnation of the Carthaginian General Hannibal; a Roman legionnaire; a Napoleonic field marshal; and various other historic military figures. Through a Glass, Darkly seems to describe those experiences.

[antonia]

We don't want no girlie-guys here.

[fizziwig]

"There is much anecdotal evidence which indicates that General George Patton held himself to be the reincarnation of the Carthaginian General Hannibal; a Roman legionnaire; a Napoleonic field marshal; and various other historic military figures. Through a Glass, Darkly seems to describe those experiences."

I am glad you raised the issue of reincarnation. I agree with you that Patton's poem seems to reflect his belief in reincarnation. However, I am pretty sure that reincarnation is not an episcopalian belief. Apparently Patton differed with them at least on this point.

Either that or Patton's belief in reincarnation is just another one of those urban legends, so to speak.

[Shanda]

My Grandfather who was in Europe in WWII once told my Daddy that both Patton and Montgomery were devout Christians.

I think Grandpa was unusual because he liked Montgomery. He said he was a "preacher's kid".

[daisymeme]

Let's Roll!

President Bush Addresses Prayer Service

September 14, 2001 Posted: 1:28 PM EDT (1728 GMT)

President Bush addressed a prayer service on Friday at the Washington National Cathedral. Here is a transcript of his comments:

We are here in the middle hour of our grief. So many have suffered so great a loss, and today we express our nation's sorrow. We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who loved them.

On Tuesday, our country was attacked with deliberate and massive cruelty. We have seen the images of fire and ashes and bent steel.

Now come the names, the list of casualties we are only beginning. They are the names of men and women who began their day at a desk or in an airport, busy with life. They are the names of people who faced death and in their last moments called home to say, be brave and I love you.

They are the names of passengers who defied their murderers and prevented the murder of others on the ground. They are the names of men and women who wore the uniform of the United States and died at their posts.

They are the names of rescuers -- the ones whom death found running up the stairs and into the fires to help others. We will read all these names. We will linger over them and learn their stories, and many Americans will weep.

To the children and parents and spouses and families and friends of the lost, we offer the deepest sympathy of the nation. And I assure you, you are not alone.

Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history, but our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.

War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder.

This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others; it will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing.

Our purpose as a nation is firm, yet our wounds as a people are recent and unhealed and lead us to pray. In many of our prayers this week, there's a searching and an honesty. At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, on Tuesday, a woman said, "I pray to God to give us a sign that he's still here."

Others have prayed for the same, searching hospital to hospital, carrying pictures of those still missing.

God's signs are not always the ones we look for. We learn in tragedy that his purposes are not always our own, yet the prayers of private suffering, whether in our homes or in this great cathedral are known and heard and understood.

There are prayers that help us last through the day or endure the night. There are prayers of friends and strangers that give us strength for the journey, and there are prayers that yield our will to a will greater than our own.

This world He created is of moral design. Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance and love have no end, and the Lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn.

It is said that adversity introduces us to ourselves.

This is true of a nation as well. In this trial, we have been reminded and the world has seen that our fellow Americans are generous and kind, resourceful and brave.

We see our national character in rescuers working past exhaustion, in long lines of blood donors, in thousands of citizens who have asked to work and serve in any way possible. And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. Inside the World Trade Center, one man who could have saved himself stayed until the end and at the side of his quadriplegic friend. A beloved priest died giving the last rites to a firefighter. Two office workers, finding a disabled stranger, carried her down 68 floors to safety.

A group of men drove through the night from Dallas to Washington to bring skin grafts for burned victims. In these acts and many others, Americans showed a deep commitment to one another and in an abiding love for our country.

Today, we feel what Franklin Roosevelt called, "the warm courage of national unity." This is a unity of every faith and every background. This has joined together political parties and both houses of Congress. It is evident in services of prayer and candlelight vigils and American flags, which are displayed in pride and waved in defiance. Our unity is a kinship of grief and a steadfast resolve to prevail against our enemies. And this unity against terror is now extending across the world.

America is a nation full of good fortune, with so much to be grateful for, but we are not spared from suffering. In every generation, the world has produced enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America because we are freedom's home and defender, and the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time.

On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask almighty God to watch over our nation and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn, and the promise of a life to come.

As we've been assured, neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth can separate us from God's love.

May He bless the souls of the departed. May He comfort our own. And may He always guide our country.

God bless America.

[petitfour]

Thanks for the ping.

[potlatch]

Beautiful post daisymeme!!

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for the ping.

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

[Richard Kimball]

I've read a couple of books on Patton. Patton was a strong Christian, but also a believer in certain types of mysticism, and from the readings, I believe there is ample evidence that he believed in reincarnation, and that he believed he was reincarnated in a line of warriors. His daughter claimed that on the night he died in Europe, that she woke up about 2 AM in her bedroom in the US and saw him sitting at her window sill in his uniform. I am not saying this actually happened, but that his daughter recounted it as being true.

One thing to remember about the movie Patton is that although it was accurate in many areas, the primary adviser to the movie was Omar Bradley (played by Karl Mauldin in the movie), and was based on Bradley's autobiography, A Soldier's Story. Bradley, according to several accounts I've read, was jealous of the fact most people in the US perceived Patton as being the Allies best general. This was supposedly exacerbated by the fact that when the Allies recovered Nazi documents, the documents revealed little fear of Bradley or Montgomery, but considered Patton a military genius.

While the movie Patton is a terrific piece of work, and with a few exceptions historically accurate by Hollywood standards, it should be remembered that the chief adviser to the movie chose to portray himself as the calming hand on Patton, and that some of Patton's eccentricities were exaggerated

[Richard Kimball]

Thanks for a terrific post.

[Beau Schott]

  The Many Incarnations of George S. Patton

Captain George s. Patton had never before visited Langres, a small town in northeastern France. But in December 1917, having just arrived to operate a tank school, the american newcomer declined the offer of a local liaison officer to show him around the town, once the site of a Roman military camp. "You don't have to," Patton told the surprised young man, "I know it well."

A staunch believer in reincarnation, Patton felt sure that he had been to France before-- as a Roman legionnaire. As he led the way trhough the area, he pointed out the sites of the ancient Roman temples and amphitheater, the drill ground, and the forum, even showeing a spot where Julius Caesar had made his camp. It was, Patton later told his nephew, :As if someone were at my ear whispering the directions,:

Patton may have credited his continuing military success, in part, to having been a soldier in other battles, in past lives. Once, in North Africa during World war ll, a British general complimented Patton: "You would have made a great marshal for Napoleon if you'd lived in the eighteenth century." Patton merely grinned, " But I did," he replied.

 

  There is still reference to reincarnation in the Old Testament. In the year 325 AD the Roman emperor Constantine the great, along with his mother Helena, had deleted references to reincarnation contained in the New Testament. The second council of Constantinople, meeting in the year 553 AD, confirmed this action and declared the concept of reincarnation a heresy (unorthodoxy).

Solomon the son of David, king of Jerusalem speaking in the Old Testament Ecclesiastes wrote:

Ecc 1:9   The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun.

Ecc 1:10   Is there [any] thing whereof it may be said, See, this [is] new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

Ecc 1:11   [There is] no remembrance of former [things]; neither shall there be [any] remembrance of [things] that are to come with [those] that shall come after.

And in the New Testament we have these possible examples:

Mat 22:32  I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead , but of the living.

Mar 12:27  He is not the God of the dead , but the God of the living : ye therefore do greatly err.

Luk 20:38  For he is not a God of the dead , but of the living : for all live unto him.

[Beau Schott]

Lord, hear our prayer.  President Bush is a man who is unafraid to admit his dependence on Your Divine Power.

Our times are in Your Hands. We ask You to bless our efforts to reelect a man who is not ashamed of You, rather than to see a man come to power that is ashamed to protect the ones who are the most innocent amongst us, and who will not uphold Your principles for society, such as marriage between one man and one woman.

We have seen throughout our 228 year history as a nation that You have divinely ordained this country to be a light for freedom and for spreading the Gospel to the world. In our great and longterm abundance, we have forgotten the source of our strength and protection. We humbly ask for Your forgiveness, and for Your blessings to once again bring our land to a new level of righteousness and brotherhood.

With thanks for Your help in times past, and with our dependence on Your help for the times to come, we put ourselves in Your Hands to guide us. In the name of Jesus, who is above all names, we ask these things. Amen.

Amen!

Thanks exit82 for the very fine prayer.

 

[Salem]

"...In Gideon's day, and in our own, spiritually alert minorities carry the burdens and bring the victories."

Thanks much for the 'Ping' on this one. This is a great piece of Patton history. How very, very relevant to today. That one quote reminded me of the men and women of Free Republic.

---

AMERICA AT WAR
At Salem the Soldier's Homepage ~

[JudyinCanada]

Hello Salem...

Just a quick note to let you know that I do appreciate everything you are sending! Ping away!