Hello Mr. Meyer. While you are right in the sense that one should not seek a greater suffering than what's offered in their state in life without guidance from their spiritual directors, I don't think the paratrooper's prayer should be so disturbing. After all, Our Lord sought out The Cross from His youth as that was the very reason for which He became man. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane he accepted the Chalice which His Father offered. Our Lord did ask that the cup of The Passion pass from Him, but He knew that it would not. He allowed His Sacred Humanity to endure every anxiety and every weakness in order to raise our weakness to Himself, but it doesn't change the fact that he asks us to take up our crosses and follow Him. The road to salvation is one of mortification and detachment, or as Our Lord puts it: "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away." (Matthew 11:12) We shouldn't fear the cross, but embrace it with Joy. One can suffer and not give his heart over to sorrow. If you look at the lives of the Saints, you see this very thing. To conclude my opinion on this prayer, I think that we are in circumstances where the suffering asked for in this prayer is the suffering required in the state of life of most Catholic men. For example, how many blasphemies do you think would be averted if men started standing up against blasphemers, or how quickly would abortion end if Catholics were united in ignoring the demonic "FACE act"? We are so unwilling to give up our comforts that the devil is allowed to advance his malice throughout the world. We have forgotten our primal call to subdue and rule over the earth, perfected in the Grand Commission. Godspeed

As a Catholic paratrooper, I disagree. To be a paratrooper is to accept that you are mortal, that pain is part of life and it is worthwhile to fight for the right things. You fling your body out with the acceptance that you may not land in once piece or in favorable situation. Most people avoid pain and risk of death, being a paratrooper is not for most people. There is a very nice version of this in English narrated by the Chaplain of UK's 12th Para brigade.

Added so people can review the original and translations en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paratrooper%27s_Prayer#:~:text=I'm%20asking%20You%20God,the%20body%2C%20or%20the%20mind.

It goes this way, although there are different versions: Give me, oh Lord my God what is left Thee; that which no one asks of Thee. I do not ask for rest or tranquility, neither of soul or body. I do not ask Thee for wealth or success or health. So many ask Thee for these, my God, that none must be left Thee. Give me, Lord what is left; give me what all refuse. I want risk and anguish! I want fight and pain! Give me these, my God, once and for all. Give me the certainty that this will always be my portion, for not always will I have the courage to ask it of Thee. Give me, Lord what is left Thee; give me what others do not want, but also give me courage, strength, and faith.

How sad! I am a Vietnam Veteran. I did not choose to willingly go into this War. I was drafted, chose to join the Navy instead and I ended up on USS Joseph Strauss DDG-16, a guided missile destroyer, off the coast of South Vietnam during a six month deployment in 1970. The ship alternated between being on the gunline and in Tonkin Gulf escorting carriers. I was an FTG (gun fire control technician). We set up the gun fire control computer and radar to fire the ship's guns. Strauss fired about 5,000 5" 54 caliber shells during this cruise. It was a fairly easy cruise. We were never shot at and we never felt we were in danger. Another seven month deployment again started in February 1972 and again the ship was off the coast of South Vietnam alternating between the gunline and escorting carriers through the end of March. The first three months were similar to the 1970 cruise. We never felt in any real danger. The Easter Offensive had started in the last days of March or on Easter Saturday, April 1, though us peons did not know it at the time. Strauss had a call for fire early morning on Easter Saturday, April 1. We are in gun plot, the computer center for the ships guns. Just another routine call for fire we thought. Nope, this one was different. Strauss started receiving counterbattery. Hundreds of enemy rounds were landing close to the ship. Strauss went to General Quarters for the first time since I had been on the ship. This call for fire lasted for four days. Strauss fired 1,500 rounds during the four days. Easter Sunday, two surface to air missiles (SAM's) were fired at Strauss and just missed the ship. Almost all of the call for fire(s) Strauss had were from Marine spotters. This call for fire was again from Marine spotters. Again, this was at the start of the Easter Offensive and 200,000 NVA troops and equipment were coming across the DMZ. Strauss' mission was to protect the Marine spotters as enemy troops were advancing toward them. Other U.S. warships in the area were pounding NVA troops advancing toward the south. The same Marine spotters were spotting for those warships where to fire their shells. Strauss saved the Marine spotters. Several of them later came aboard Strauss and thanked us for saving their lives. Months later we found out that this operation was all in support of slowing the advancement of the NVA to protect the Marine spotters and to slow the advance of the NVA so that Captain (at the time) John Ripley had time to blow up the bridge. And it wasn't just the U.S. warships in the area that were supporting this operation. It was bombers from the nearby U.S. aircraft carriers and perhaps B-52 bombers. But I can assure you! Most of us in the Vietnam War either got drafted into the Army or joined a different branch of service. I didn't do any war crimes. Neither did my shipmates. Neither did my cousin who was a medic. Nor did millions of others. We did our jobs!

@@davidsoule1252 Yeah did your jobs in continuing an American disaster going for 10 years...yet you blame the politicians and unsupportive American public for everything. Too bad all of you didn't have the brains and the courage to be real patriots and stand up to your Government when it was wrong. That's called real patriotism. It was people like myself that helped to hasten the end of that disaster and ultimately save American lives. Your time in Vietnam did absolutely nothing for the safety, security and freedom of Americans. If you believe that you did...you probably believe in the Tooth Fairy as well. All that money wasted. We spend millions of dollars on building a bridge only to have one of our military personnel destroy it? What sense is that? ALL you 2.7 million Vietnam veterans were chumps and pawns of your Government and the military/industrial complex. Your country didn't have the guts or integrity to declare war that it sent you to. Vietnam did nothing to Americans or the US. The war was essentially an Asian civil war for independence from decades of colonialism. YOU didn't belong there. It wasn't your fight. You were an invader and aggressor in someone else's country.

@@robertisham5279 How sad can you be?

​@@davidsoule1252No I'm not sad angry because Vietnam veterans like Ripley could've become a powerful force to get us put of future Vietnams but did nothing. His legacy is being a chump and pawn of the military industrial complex.

​@@davidsoule1252The draft was no excuse for going to Vietnam.

It's vive not viva, we're not spanish