"...We Have Been Given Courage and Fortitude..."


Sunday marked the 51st Annual Candlelight Thanksgiving Service for the Putnam County Historical Society & Foundry School Museum. Held in the non-denominational Chapel of Our Lady Restoration in Cold Spring, a dramatic piece of Greek Revival architecture perched on a rock bluff over the Hudson, the service paid tribute to past proclamations of thanks by various U.S. leaders.

This one, read by Elliott Sumers, seems particularly timely:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1934


"... During the past year, we have been given courage and fortitude to meet the problems which have confronted us in our national life. Our sense of social justice has deepened. We have been given vision to make new provisions for human welfare and happiness, and in a spirit of mutual helpfulness we have cooperated to translate vision into reality.

More greatly have we turned our hearts and minds to things spiritual. We can truly say, "What profiteth it a nation if it gain the whole world and lose its own soul." With gratitude in our hearts for what has already been achieved, may we, with the help of God, dedicate ourselves anew to work for the betterment of mankind."

Photo courtesy: www.chapelofourlady.com. The chapel was rescued after abandonment and vandalizing, by human hands and those of Mother Nature, in 1970 by a group of concerned citizens. Read more at its Web site above.

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