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Prayers for Memorial Day

Join the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego in prayer as we approach Memorial Day. EDSD knows the great sacrifice our military members, their families, friends, and neighbors endure in order for all of us to celebrate our freedoms. Take a moment and pray for these courageous people who gave their lives for the goal of peace and security for all. Consider including one or more of these prayers in your Sunday services.


Almighty God, today we offer our gratitude for all the men and women who have served their country in defense of freedom. For their sacrifice of time, talent and life, we pay them homage. Help all who have gathered here to remember those whose sense of dedication and patriotism led them to preserve the democratic way of life we enjoy. Enable us to follow their lead and do all that we can to further the cause of peace in the world. To this end, we seek your blessing. Amen.


Almighty God we remember on this Memorial Day all your servants who have departed this life in the service of their country. We pray that having opened to them the gates of larger life, you will receive them more and more into your joyful service, that they may win with you and your servants everywhere the eternal victory. For us who are here, may the Lord bless us and keep us. May the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. May the Lord lift his countenance upon us and give us peace now and forever more.


Father, we see our world with many faces–faces of peace and faces of war faces of plenty and faces of want, faces of joy and faces of sadness. In times past, when the faces of courage and sacrifice were needed, we were blessed with men and women who offered their lives and did not doubt that it was right. Today, in this ceremony, we remember them. Help us, Lord, to show our gratitude by sharing the face of freedom with others. We can do no less for those who have done so much for us. Amen.


O God our strength and redeemer, by your leading our ancestors brought forth on this continent a great nation, born of faith and struggle, dedicated to liberty and freedom, characterized by justice and courage, and committed to the promotion of the common good. A changing world continually challenges these time-honored values, proving the temper of their metal in American lives. In such moments, we seek your blessing, Amen.


Eternal Father, who alone rules the destinies of nations and who has deemed that men should live in freedom and not fear, awaken in us a new appreciation of our land that we may apply ourselves to the great work of keeping alive a sense of freedom.

Grant us your spirit as we honor those who have fought a good fight and finished the course. On this day we call to remembrance those who served in far-off places and have laid down their arms to march into that land of eternal peace.

We remember the sufferings, the fears, and the horrors of what they endured. It is a time for us to realize that much of our best blood has been spilled–all over the world–so that we might live free and unchained!

May they, and those who suffer wounds for peace, as well as their families who valiantly and silently also serve, receive rest from their struggles and a “well done “from you, Captain of their souls. Permit us never to forget our comrades-in-arms from whose fallen hands we have taken up the sacred cause of freedom.

Today, we consecrate unto you the debt of our national gratitude, which is their rightful due. Keep sacred their sacrifice in our hearts. Keep holy our course in your sight. Enkindle within us a flame of selfless unwavering devotion to duty that we may never be found wanting in those qualities of spirit and mind which alone are able to preserve hearth and home, the peace of our nation, and the tranquility of the world.

May the day soon come when we can lay down arms and more earnestly give our attention to do justice, to live in kindness, and to walk humbly in your sight. Amen.

 

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Category: #Military, #Sundays

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