On June 28, 1914, the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand would plunge the nations of the world into a war that lasted four years and cost the lives of an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilians. If what became known as the First World War, "the Great War," the "war to end all wars," is considered a factor in a number of genocides and 1918 influenza epidemic, the death toll was between 50 and 100 million deaths worldwide. It was a war that saw the introduction of the aerial bomb, the flame thrower, poison gas, the submarine, and the tank, as well as the widespread use of the bolt-action rifle, the machine gun, the hand-grenade, massed artillery, and the creeping artillery barrage. What the Germany General Staff thought would be a quick campaign would degenerate into the horrors of trench warfare.
On November 11, 1918, a hundred years ago today, the war-weary nations would conclude an armistice, bringing an end to the slaughter. Among the lessons that we can learn from this terrible war is the folly of unbridled nationalism and unrestrained self-interest. Here is a prayer from the outbreak of that war, which we would do well to take to heart and to make our own.
O Almighty God, who canst bring good out of evil and makest even the wrath of man to turn to thy praise: Teach us to live together in charity and peace; and grant, we beseech thee, that the nations of the world may henceforth be united in a firmer fellowship for the promotion of thy glory and the good of all mankind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. A Form of Prayer, August 1914
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