Friends of Padre Steve’s World,
Memorial Day weekend is approaching and as usual I am becoming more reflective as I think about all who have given the “last full measure of devotion” to duty and this country. For most this holiday is not much more than the kickoff to summer and fun in the sun. But for me it is all too melancholy. In addition to my usual articles I will be re-posting a number of articles about Memorial Day from previous years. I hope that you will share them to increase the awareness of what this holiday means for all of us.
Peace,
Padre Steve+
“even if those who come after us are to forget all that we hold dear, and the future is to teach and kindle its children in ways as yet unrevealed, it is enough for us that this day is dear and sacred…”
Nearly 20 years after the Civil War, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. then serving as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court spoke on Memorial Day 1884 in Keene New Hampshire at a gathering of veterans. He recalled an incident not long before where he had heard a young man ask “why people still kept up Memorial Day. The question was one that he pondered before his speech and that he attempted to find an answer, not to his fellow veterans who certainly understood their shared memories of war “but an answer which should command the assent of those who do not share our memories.”
I think that having…
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The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 