The National Day of Prayer is observed on the first Thursday of May.
This is a time for Americans to pray for their nation.
“Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it.” – Thomas Jefferson, 1808
The first call to a National Day of Prayer was in 1775 when the Continental Congress asked the colonists to pray for wisdom in forming this nation. The call to pray for the nation has continued throughout our history. President Lincoln proclaimed a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863. A declaration of an annual National Day of Prayer was signed into law in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and President Harry S. Truman. The law was amended and signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988; permanently setting the day of observation on the first Thursday in May.
Each year the current President signs a proclamation, encouraging all Americans to pray for their nation on this day.
The National Day of Prayer is a reminder that we should pray for our nation every day.
It also serves as a reminder to teach our nations history to the next generation.
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