It’s that time of the year again, the time we take to celebrate the birth of our nation. We turn our thoughts to all things Canadian; the noble Mounties on horseback dressed in their red serge splendour, the mighty moose, the fluffy beaver, the majestic Canadian goose, and of course, everyone’s favourite (and one of God’s most tasty creations), maple syrup. I’m sure the list can go on. We even see more and more flags going up and our proud maple leaf prominently displayed everywhere. We are awash in a sea of red and white.

Our anthem is also forefront in our minds these days as a bill was passed to officially change the words in the line “in all our sons command” to “in all of us command”. It created quite the debate! This is not the first time in history that the words to O Canada have been changed (in the English translation), and this change actually brings the words back, or close to it, to what they were originally when the line said, “thou dost in us command”.

When I was younger and in the early grades of school, I remember when we used to sing more “we stand on guard for thee” lines than what we do now. It was also in 1982 when O Canada officially became our anthem (with the repatriation of the constitution, etc.) that the line “God keep our land glorious and free” was added in, replacing some of the many “we stand on guard for thee” lines.

Unfortunately, we usually only sing the words to the first verse. It is a reality that many people don’t even realize that there are more verses to O Canada. They also don’t realize that when they sing the anthem that they are actually singing a prayer, a prayer to God to keep our land free and glorious that it is. Personally, I like the words to the last verse, and wish that it would be sung more as it is also a prayer in and of itself.

“Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion in thy loving care.
Help us to find, Oh God, in thee
A lasting rich reward.
As waiting for the better day,
We ever stand on guard.

God Keep our land, glorious and free
Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”

Even though we have Remembrance Day set aside to reflect on and honour those that have given us this freedom, we should also take a moment this Canada Day (or to some, it is still affectionately referred to as Dominion Day) to pause and remember those brave men and women who, throughout the years from the War of 1812 to Afghanistan and in Peacekeeping missions, are in harm’s way to maintain our way of life and freedoms, and also those many Police, Fire, and EMS personnel who are out there every day keeping us safe and doing God’s work keeping us glorious and free!