A Memorial Day Prayer

I'm reposting this prayer from Chalice Worship. I shared it in worship yesterday and believe it speaks to our need to stop and consider those who have died in service to the country and the need to pursue peace in our world -- so that more do not die in this way.

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Memories are joyful and painful, by we cannot live without them.
Let us pray that we may never forget.

For leaders who send young men and women to war,
that their judgments may be sound
and their motives be pure,
we pray.

For soldiers who lay down their lives for others,
that the love which inspires their sacrifice
be fulfilled in the love of Christ,
we pray.

For soldiers who have been maimed or brutalized by war,
that our love for them may make their scars less hurtful
and make their brutality yield to the tenderness of returning love,
we pray.

For those who have been left behind,
that they may live on the strength of the love that they knew,
we pray.

For those who suffer most from war,
that the homeless, the orphaned, the hungry, and the innocent
may help us turn from warlike ways to pursue the potential of peace,
we pray.

God of Peace, help us never to forget that war is hell.
Help us to honor its saints, and to pray for its sinners and victims,
through the Victim for our sakes, Christ Jesus, our Lord.