Prayer

In the Gothic stillness of San Francisco's Grace Episcopal Cathedral. 1,000 men & women of all faiths gathered one noon last week for pre-invasion prayers. They listened as Godfrey Fisher, British consul general in San Francisco, read from Paul's fiery letter to the Ephesians:

"Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. ..."

They knelt on the hard, stone floor as Bishop Karl Morgan Block intoned:

"Oh, Almighty God . . . we commend to Thy care all engaged in the great invasion, that being armed with Thy defense, they may be preserved in all perils, and do their duty in honor and glory."

The service ended with a silence for individual prayer.

All over the land, people were thinking of Dday. New York City's Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia announced a street service to be held in Madison Square on the day; Maryland's Governor Herbert O'Conor asked all liquor stores to close for the rest of the day on receipt of the invasion news. And in Washington, OWI Chief Elmer Davis pleaded that there be no commercial exploitation of Dday.

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