Leader: Lord of comfort and peace, we lift our hearts to you:
We praise you and we bless you, our true and loving God.
We pray for all who search for you that they may find their way in you.
Lord, in your mercy:
All: Hear our prayer.
Leader: We pray for all who are oppressed by governments or institutions:
for those whose voices are not heard or believed, those with no one on their side.
Bless us with a joy for justice and the strength to persevere
as we work toward your coming kingdom. Lord, in your mercy:
All: Hear our prayer.
Leader: We pray for peace in this war-torn world.
(Silent Prayer)
Where there is envy, hatred and division,
may understanding, acceptance, and love flourish.
Lord, in your mercy:
All: Hear our prayer.
Leader: Compassionate God, on this Memorial Day Weekend
we pray for all who suffer as a result of war:
for the injured and the disabled, for the mentally distressed,
and for those whose faith in God and in other people
has been weakened or destroyed by the horrors of war.
Lord, in your mercy:
All: Hear our prayer.
Leader: We remember before you all who have died in the faith,
and pray for all who will die even this day,
that they may know the joy of the new kingdom that awaits us—
when love and forgiveness triumph over war and violence.
We pray in the name of the One who is our peace,
the One who taught us to pray, saying:
All: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.