Memories are joyful and painful, but 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 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 that surpasses all love, 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 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*.
As we remember those who died in war for the cause of peace:
Lord, make us peacemakers.
As we look to the future of our children and grandchildren:
Lord, make us peacemakers.
As we think of the war-torn, blood-stained, sorrowful world:
Lord, make us peacemakers.
Lord, hear our prayer*
and come to us in perfect love, to drive away our fear;
in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Amen.
*Meditate, hold in good and active thought.