“God does not answer vague prayers. The more specific your prayers are, the more glory God receives.”                                          Mark Batterson

December 8, 1944 – The Ardennes Forest – Germany: After three weeks of steady rain, General George Patton called James O’Neill, Chief Chaplain of Patton’s 3^rd Army, to his office. “Chaplain, sit down for a minute. I am a strong believer in prayer. How much praying is being done in the 3^rd Army?” he asked.  O’Neill replied, “By the chaplains or the soldiers?” Patton shrugged, “By everybody.”

The chaplain shook his head, “I am afraid to admit it, but I don’t believe much praying is happening. When there is fighting, everyone prays, but now with this constant rain, the soldiers sit and wait for things to happen.”

Patton continued, “God has been very good to the 3^rd Army because many people back home are praying for us. But we must pray for ourselves, too. Soldiers should always pray. Chaplain, do you have a good prayer for the weather? We must do something about all this rain to win the war.” It was a highly unusual request, even for someone as unpredictable as George Patton.

O’Neill assured the 59-year-old 3-Star General that he would look for a suitable prayer and returned to his office. He couldn’t find a weather prayer in his prayer books, so he wrote one on a three-by-five notecard. An hour later, O’Neill was back in Patton’s office. The general read the prayer and was pleased. “Have 250,000 copies printed,” Patton said. “And see to it that every man in the 3^rd Army gets one.” O’Neill stared at the general in disbelief but answered in the affirmative, “Very well, sir.”

After landing at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Patton’s army fought through Normandy, liberated southern France, and pushed toward Germany. In the early fall, Patton promised Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower that his 3^rd Army, with more than 250,000 soldiers, would capture Berlin, and the war would be over by Christmas.

Then winter set in, and the rain started. Cold rain fell every day, dampening spirits. Mud clogged tank tracks, bogged down trucks, and rain and fog grounded planes. Patton’s army was stuck in the mud. Despite limited fighting, his army had only progressed 40 miles in the past five weeks. Berlin would not be taken by Christmas.

Military recognizance indicated that German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was planning a major offensive in the Ardennes region of Belgium, France, and Germany. He planned to launch a last desperate gamble to change the war’s outcome. Germany marshaled 200,000 troops for the offensive. It was now or never for the Nazi regime.

At 3rd Army headquarters, Chaplain O’Neill and the Army Engineer Field Topographical Company were working around-the-clock to print 250,000 copies of Patton’s prayer. The 69-word prayer was printed on three-by-five cards with a Christmas greeting from the general on the back. The printing took three days.

As the cards found their way to the 485 chaplains and the senior officers in the 3^rd Army for distribution to the troops, General Patton issued a directive: Pray when driving. Pray when fighting. Pray when alone. Pray by night and pray by day. Pray for cessation of the moderate rains. Pray for good weather. Pray for the defeat of our wicked enemy. And pray for peace.

All the prayer cards were distributed by December 17. Many soldiers kept their cards in their shirt pockets beside their GI Bible. As the rain continued to fall, thousands of soldiers began to pray. More than 4,000 bombers and fighter planes stood by, waiting for the rain to end. The general waited for his prayer to be answered.

On December 21, to the surprise of military weather forecasters, the rain stopped, and the weather lifted. Forecasters thought the rainy weather would continue for another week, but it remained fair and cold for a week. Two days later, Patton moved 100,000 troops 100 miles in 24 hours and into position in Bastogne, Belgium.

The Battle of the Bulge, the largest offensive in Europe during WWII, would be General George Patton’s finest hour. During the next month, German forces were decimated. The Allies’ victory would hasten the war’s end in Europe.

Six weeks after Chaplain O’Neill wrote the weather prayer, Patton summoned him to his office.

“Well, Padre, our prayers worked. I knew they would,” said Patton. Then he pinned a Bronze Star on O’Neill’s chest. “Well done,” Patton saluted him. James O’Neill was the only man to be awarded a medal in World War II for writing a prayer.