1941 Christmas Message of hope

As a dark, wintry day in 1941 drew to a close, United States president F.D. Roosevelt welcomed Churchill to the White House to plan the next allied steps in response to Pearl Harbor. The world was uneasy as it braced itself for war.

They met to prepare for battle, and in that, still offered comfort to a hurting people of great hope as they did one customary act. The lighting of the White House Christmas Tree.

These two men, esteemed in their status, were ultimately still two humans with the same fears and questions as the rest of the world. Battling their own personal challenges and pain. Yet, their position demanded that they move forward with courage and determination. Unity was essential.

This Christmas, there is massive American fracture and discord. Still, we face fears and uncertainty. However, the same courageous message applies.

Let us find a common cause of comradeship, as we face the future together. We have more in common than we often remember.

For in darkness, there is always the hope of Light. I hope these words ring true to you as well as they do for me- comforting and challenging.

Enjoy reading the thoughtful words each speaker presented, and at the end of the post, make sure to click the link to watch the original video!

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England’s 1941 Christmas Message

…This is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other.

Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field.

Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart.

Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace.

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

And so, in God’s mercy, a happy Christmas to you all.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the U.S. 1941 Christmas Message

But how would our spirits be lifted to do this without the mourning we still feel from Pearl Harbor? We need help. How can we light our trees? How can we give our gifts? How can we meet and worship with love and with uplifted spirit and heart in a world at war, a world of fighting and suffering and death?

How can we pause, even for a day, even for Christmas Day, in our urgent labor of arming a decent humanity against the enemies which beset it? How can we put the world aside, as men and women put the world aside in peaceful years, to rejoice in the birth of Christ.

These are natural—inevitable—questions in every part of the world which is resisting the evil thing. And even as we ask these questions, we know the answer.

There is another preparation demanded of this Nation beyond and beside the preparation of weapons and materials of war. There is demanded also of us the preparation of our hearts; the arming of our hearts.

And when we make ready our hearts for the labor and the suffering and the ultimate victory which lie ahead, then we observe Christmas Day—with all of its memories and all of its meanings—as we should. Looking into the days to come, I have set aside a day of prayer, and in that Proclamation I have said:

The year 1941 has brought upon our Nation a war of aggression by powers dominated by arrogant rulers whose selfish purpose is to destroy free institutions. They would thereby take from the freedom-loving peoples of the earth the hard-won liberties gained over many centuries.

The new year of 1942 calls for the courage and the resolution of old and young to help to win a world struggle in order that we may preserve all we hold dear.
We are confident in our devotion to country, in our love of freedom, in our inheritance of courage.

But our strength, as the strength of all men everywhere, is of greater avail as God upholds us.

Therefore, I… do hereby appoint the first day of the year 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, of asking God’s help in days to come.

We need His guidance that this people may be humble in spirit but strong in the conviction of the right; steadfast to endure sacrifice, and brave to achieve a victory of liberty and peace.

Our strongest weapon in this war is that conviction of the dignity and brotherhood of man which Christmas Day signifies more than any other day or any other symbol.