Veterans’ Day Prayer  (UCC 2008)

O God, we give you thanks today for our nation’s veterans.

We honor them for their faithful service to our country,

and for what they have done

to defend and preserve our freedom.

Generation after generation,

young men and women

have answered our country’s call,

and their lives have been changed forever.

We are grateful to all who have served,

whether in peacetime or in conflict.

But today we especially remember

those who have been tempered by fire,

those who continue to bear wounds

of the body or the spirit

as a result of what they endured.

They lie in our veterans’ hospitals

or struggle for recovery in rehabilitation centers;

they suffer from post-traumatic stress

and survivor’ guilt;

they yearn for peace in their souls.

Dear God, we ask you to heal their wounds,

to banish whatever inner demons may haunt them,

and to give them peace within

so they may return fully to their families and to society.

We thank you, God, for all of our country’s veterans

—those of past generations,

and those who continue to earn this title today.

May we never forget what our country has asked of them

and what they have given in return.

Help us to give them the respect and honor they are due.

And strengthen our resolve

to build a world modeled on your realm,

where war will be pursued no more.

This we ask in the name of Jesus,

the Prince of Peace.  Amen.