Love of my neighbor and Contempt of the World

I wrote a scene in a story last night where a man says a prayer over his son before sending him into combat. Because it is a science fiction story, the battle is against an enemy not exactly human, but I wanted a nice and soldierly prayer.

In my search, I came across this prayer by happenstance, and my attention was arrested by the contrast between between what his supplicant asks, and how he deems it best to live his life, and the views on how to live expressed by such representatives of modern thinking as faithful readers of this column have no doubt seen here in recent days.

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