WASHINGTON — This morning, Speaker Johnson delivered remarks in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol to celebrate the National Day of Prayer, an annual day of observance designated by the United States Congress in 1952.
“As you pray for our country today, we thank God for His acts of salvation and provision and deliverance,” Speaker Johnson said. “Let’s also pray that we may have the strength, just as our Founders did, to hand the baton of faith and freedom onto the next generation that follows us, a generation that cherishes liberty and proclaims proudly what is right and good and true.”
Watch Speaker Johnson’s full remarks here.
Speaker Johnson’s remarks as delivered:
Prayer’s been a part of our DNA since the very beginning, as you know. So, it’s fitting that we do this formal tradition, established by Congress at the height of the Cold War. And it reaffirms something that’s so important that really goes to the heart of who we are as Americans: We are a praying nation. We always have been. It truly is part of who we are. We know that prayer is where the impossible happens. We know it’s where we find solace and stay anchored in our faith, even through challenges and even through the storms, and that is indeed how we have endured. It’s fitting that we’re here in beautiful Statuary Hall, which, as you all know, was the original House Chamber.
It’s fitting that as you walk around the Capitol here, and we’re so happy to welcome you today that you’ll see vestiges, reminders, of the deep religious heritage of our country. You’ll see reminders of our deep Judeo-Christian traditions, our foundations, our biblical foundations. That’s what makes America unique and extraordinary.
Just about a hundred feet or so from here, if you went through the Rotunda and took a left, you would go down the hallway where my office is. The Speaker’s Office on one side, on the other side is the Senate Majority Leader’s Office, and right in the middle of that is a chapel. It was erected about the same time, built and established there about the same time as the National Day of Prayer became a formal piece of our law. And as you walk in there—many of you have been in there before and invite you to go visit it—your eyes will be drawn up to this beautiful original stained-glass piece. It’s one of a kind. I think it’s the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and in that stained glass right in the center is depicted the father of our country, George Washington, and he is humbled before the Lord down on one knee. And he’s praying and the words surrounding him from Psalm 16:1, and it says, “Preserve me, oh God, for in thee do I put my trust, preserve me.” That’s what we still echo today. And of course, that passage of scripture is a restatement of our national motto: In God we trust.
And by the way, if you come with us to the House Chamber, the current House Chamber, you’ll see that Congress also many years back also during the height of the Cold War decided to engrave permanently the national motto right above the head of the Speaker of the House and the rostrum as a permanent reminder. In fact, it says in the visitor’s guide to the House Chamber, somewhere about on page 21, it says what that was for and it says, ‘Congress put that there as a rebuke to the Soviets because their philosophy.’ They did it during the height of the Cold War.
Communism, Marxism, socialism began with the premise that there is no God. Congress wanted to make sure that all future generations understood that is not who we are. And these are reminders that they were there long before the practice of public prayer was formally enshrined in the law. It was before we did all that it was immortalized in the hearts of the American people and in the Founders of our very nation. It wasn’t just George Washington. From the first harvest at Plymouth, to the bloodstained battlefields at Bunker Hill, to the whispered prayers of pioneers who are moving westward, the long arc of American history has been charted by the prayers of God-fearing people, God-fearing American citizens.
This 75th annual National Day of Prayer comes at a unique time in the history of our country. Of course, we’re also celebrating the 250th anniversary of this grand experiment in self-governance. For Americans of faith, it’s a time for us to come together and to pray for our nation, of course. And so, it is so fitting that we do this right now.
It’s also a time to reflect on the great moral inheritance of which every American citizen, across every generation has been the humble recipient. That inheritance goes back to the very idea upon which our nation was founded. We boldly proclaimed the self-evident truth that our rights do not come from government. They come from God himself, that He is the one that has endowed us with our inalienable rights. That among those of the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, Right there in the second paragraph in the nation’s birth certificate, it summarizes our national statement of faith. The Founders made that bold declaration, and that was the foundation that that made us become the most free, most successful, most powerful, most benevolent nation in the history of the planet. It’s not even close.
Our Founders did their best to set up our nation in accordance with His guidelines and principles and my friends. That is why God has blessed America for 250 years. But the faith of our Founders didn’t just shape the character of our civic institutions. It steeled the American spirit, and it strengthened the fabric of our public life through our highest highs and our lowest lows. So it’s only natural that today we reflect on this experiment in liberty and how best to maintain it, how to keep this grand experiment in self-governance, how to keep the republic, and we follow our Founders and we seek his guidance, God’s guidance through the words of scripture and the invocation of prayer.
The theme of this year’s National Day of Prayer is not rhetorical. It says, ‘Tell of God’s glory among the nations, His good deeds to all people.’ As Americans of faith, we see that as our responsibility. We can never know what tomorrow brings, of course, but God calls us to be faithful and to proclaim his good deeds. And on this grand anniversary in particular, we have a great opportunity. We should use this the entire year as a teachable moment to pass along to the next generation of Americans who we are, what we’re about, and way why we are this great country.
So, as you pray for our country today, we thank God for His acts of salvation and provision and deliverance. Let’s also pray that we may have the strength just as our Founders did, to hand the baton of faith and freedom onto the next generation that follows us, a generation that cherishes liberty and proclaims proudly what is right and good and true. Thank you for being here.
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