Faith & Spirit Quote by Jackie Kennedy

A prayer that reads like a telegram: spare, direct, almost contractual. Jackie Kennedy’s “Dear God, please take care of your servant John Fitzgerald Kennedy” isn’t trying to sound poetic; it’s trying to hold something together. The formality of “John Fitzgerald Kennedy” does two things at once: it keeps the man intact as a whole person, not a headline or a symbol, and it also acknowledges the public weight attached to his full name. She’s speaking to God, but she can’t quite escape the ceremonial world that surrounds him.

The key word is “servant.” It’s a Catholic frame, yes, but it’s also a political reframing. Presidents are sold as masters of events; “servant” flips the hierarchy. It recasts power as obligation, and it subtly asks for mercy on the grounds of duty. Subtextually, it’s an appeal against the cruel arithmetic of history: if he’s been serving, hasn’t he earned protection? That tiny rhetorical move lets the speaker argue without sounding like she’s bargaining.

Context matters because Jackie Kennedy is rarely remembered as someone who “pleaded” in public. Her style was control, poise, curation. A private line like this reveals the cost of living inside a myth while fearing the body’s fragility. “Take care” is almost domestic language, the phrase you use when you can’t be there yourself. It admits helplessness without theatrics, a portrait of intimacy pressed up against the machinery of state.