Army Lt. Col. John Morris, 34th Infantry Division chaplain, presents Army Staff Sgt. Bellatrix Estrella, a chaplain's assistant with the division, with a Bible during a religious support conference for unit ministry teams at Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq, June 30, 2009. Minnesota National Guard photo by Sgt. Mark Miranda
Face of Defense: Division Chaplain Answers Call
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy
Special to American Forces Press Service
ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 23, 2009 - For many chaplains, providing spiritual and mental support for soldiers is a calling. But for one Minnesota Army National Guard chaplain, that's just part of the equation.
The real calling is that of being a soldier.
"I've often said in sermons to soldiers that I believe serving in the military is a call, and that it's a call to be a peacekeeper or a peacemaker," said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) John Morris, chaplain of the 34th Infantry Division, which is currently deployed to Basra, Iraq.
"These phrases that we use like selfless service, which is a common phrase in the Army, it's a vocational, religious connotation whether a person has a spiritual background or not," Morris said. "We're calling them to self-sacrifice on behalf of other people."
Read the whole piece here.
No comments:
Post a Comment