Christopher Columbus's Prayer Upon Landing in the New World
"...that Thy holy Name may be proclaimed in this second part of the earth.”
“O Lord, Almighty and everlasting God, by Thy Holy Word Thou has created the heaven, and the earth, and the sea; blessed and glorified be Thy Name, and praised be Thy Majesty, which hath deigned to use us, Thy humble servants, that Thy holy Name may be proclaimed in this second part of the earth.”
Once considered a hero of western civilization, he has become a controversial and reviled figure in recent years.
Admittedly a flawed human being, he also journaled about his passionate desire to serve Christ and carry the light of the Gospel to the utter most parts of the earth.
Here is what Christopher Columbus himself said about why he came to the America's.
"It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures...
I am a most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy, and they have covered me completely. I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His marvelous presence. For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied...
No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Savior, if it is just and if the intention is purely for His holy service. The working out of all things has been assigned to each person by our Lord, but it all happens according to His sovereign will, even though He gives advice. He lacks nothing that it is in the power of men to give Him. Oh, what a gracious Lord, who desires that people should perform for Him those things for which He holds Himself responsible! Day and night, moment by moment, everyone should express their most devoted gratitude to Him."
Columbus had ascertained that others had failed when they attempted to sail west from the Azores due to strong headwinds. But if he dropped below the Tropic of Cancer and headed west from the Canary Islands, he figured the wind would be at his back.
Columbus realized it should be possible to follow those winds to his destination, then head north and catch the prevailing winds back to Spain. “It was that simple, but no one had ever thought of it before,” Marshall noted.
Columbus regarded it as a revelation from God.
The trip was not without it's perils. Although the journey to the new world started in joy, with sailors singing hymns daily as they worked, as time went on the long journey going farther than anyone had ever ventured, began to stir fear and strife.
The captains of the other ships told Columbus, “If we continue one more day we’ll have a mutiny on our hands."
Columbus reluctantly agreed that if they did not find land after three more days, they could turn around and go back. Undoubtedly, Columbus turned to prayer, praying as he had never prayed before.
Two days later, October 11th, with hope nearly gone, a shout went up from the crew. They spotted a reed and a piece of wood that seemed to have been shaped by a human being. Then they spotted a small branch with roses floating on top of the water.
At 10 p.m. they saw a tiny light some distance ahead of them. After midnight, the electrifying cry from the Pinta went up, “Tierra! Tierra!” A lookout had spotted a small cliff, appearing in the moonlight as a silvery form along the water’s edge.
Columbus was the first to go ashore later that morning and christened the island San Salvador – “Holy Savior” — and prayed:
“O Lord, Almighty and everlasting God, by Thy Holy Word Thou has created the heaven, and the earth, and the sea; blessed and glorified be Thy Name, and praised be Thy Majesty, which hath deigned to use us, Thy humble servants, that Thy holy Name may be proclaimed in this second part of the earth.”
Sources:
The Light and the Glory, by Peter Marshall and David Manuel
The prophecies of Christopher Columbus and his faith-filled journey