NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER
Categories: Religion & Other Religions
Location: United States
Type of Event: Daily Event
Updated: May 06, 2024
Location: United States
Type of Event: Daily Event
Updated: May 06, 2024
About the National Day of Prayer
The National Day of Prayer is held annually on the first Thursday of May. The current National Day of Prayer was created in 1952, however throughout American history there have been many official National Days of Prayer. It is non-denominational and not specific to any religion. Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Jews and people from all faiths participate.
In recent years atheist groups have created an alternative to this day, known as the National Day of Reason. The constitutionality of the day is regularly challenged on 1st Amendment grounds.
Prayer has played an important role in the American story and in shaping our Nation's leaders. President Abraham Lincoln once said, "I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day." The late Coretta Scott King recounted a particularly difficult night, during the Montgomery bus boycott, when her husband, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., received a threatening phone call and prayed at the kitchen table, saying, "Lord, I have nothing left. I have nothing left. I have come to the point where I can't face it alone." Dr. King said, in that moment of prayer, he was filled with a sense of comfort and resolve, which his wife credited as a turning point in the civil rights movement.
The National Day of Prayer is renewed each year by the President of the United States.
In recent years atheist groups have created an alternative to this day, known as the National Day of Reason. The constitutionality of the day is regularly challenged on 1st Amendment grounds.
Prayer has played an important role in the American story and in shaping our Nation's leaders. President Abraham Lincoln once said, "I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day." The late Coretta Scott King recounted a particularly difficult night, during the Montgomery bus boycott, when her husband, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., received a threatening phone call and prayed at the kitchen table, saying, "Lord, I have nothing left. I have nothing left. I have come to the point where I can't face it alone." Dr. King said, in that moment of prayer, he was filled with a sense of comfort and resolve, which his wife credited as a turning point in the civil rights movement.
The National Day of Prayer is renewed each year by the President of the United States.
PROMOTIONAL DETAILS
Event Sponsor:
Presidential Decree: U.S. General Services Administration
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