Prayer Service
Veterans Day
Lisa Degrenia
A contemporary prayer service honoring, remembering, and thanking military veterans as a community, allowing congregants to remember individual veterans by name. It focuses on the needs of military veterans, their families, and asks God for enduring peace. It recommends commemorative activities, has parts for two prayer leaders, and recommends service music. This service can be customized to your congregation’s particular needs.
Service
Before the service: During the gathering music, the congregation is invited to write the names of veterans on yellow ribbons and tie the ribbons to a wreath located at the front of the worship space. This could be a wire wreath or a wreath with greenery.
VOICE ONE | Psalm 18:1-3
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
so I shall be saved from my enemies. (NRSV)
VOICE TWO
Today we pause to commemorate Veterans Day, a day set aside to honor, thank, and remember all who served in the military, living or dead.
You are invited to say your own name or the name of someone you know who has served or is serving as active-duty military, as a reservist, or in the National Guard.
Pause for Response
Jesus, we hear your words from John 15, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NRSV)
Let us pause for a moment of silence.
VOICE ONE
Let us pray.
Jesus, we are grateful for those who are like you, those who are willing to sacrifice and serve. Strengthen those mentioned here today and thousands more who put the welfare of others ahead of their own safety.
Help all military personnel to serve with honor, wisdom, and compassion. Guard them from hard-heartedness, despair, and evil.
VOICE TWO
Bring help and healing to all who still struggle in body and mind because of what they have experienced.
Strengthen and bless military families, especially when they are separated one from another. Console and comfort military families, especially those who continue to grieve loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice. Surround them, and all of us, with your protection, your grace, and your peace.
Congregational Prayers
The congregation is invited to offer their own prayers for veterans silently or aloud. Close this prayer time by saying, “Amen.”
Song or Hymn
The congregation is invited to sing one of the suggested songs or another song of your choosing. They may stand or sit for the singing.
- O Worship the King (United Methodist Hymnal #73, verse 1 & 5)
- O God Our Help in Ages Past (United Methodist Hymnal #117)
- God of the Ages (United Methodist Hymnal #698)
- America the Beautiful (United Methodist Hymnal #969)
VOICE ONE | Micah 4:1-4
Hear these words from the prophet Micah.
In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. (NRSV)
VOICE TWO
God of All, it is your will for the nations to seek you and to know you.
It is your will for us to live together in peace, provision, and equity.
End the empire-building and intolerance.
End the mistrust and misinformation.
End the oppression and violence.
Bring wholeness and hope to every system, relationship, and person broken by war.
Congregational Prayers
The congregation is invited to offer their own prayers for peace silently or aloud.
VOICE ONE
Empower us all to pray and work for your promised peace.
Give us the courage to act and your wisdom to know what to do.
We ask this in the strong name of Jesus
Our Savior, our Lord
The Prince of Peace
Who taught us to pray…
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.
VOICE TWO
The congregation is invited to stand as they are able to sing one of the suggested songs or another song of your choosing.
Song or Hymn
- Let There be Peace on Earth (United Methodist Hymnal #431)
- This is My Song (United Methodist Hymnal #437)
- O-So-So (The Faith We Sing, #2232)
- They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love (The Faith We Sing #2223)
Passing the Peace
The congregation is invited to pass the peace of Christ to one another.
VOICE TWO
Beloved of God, go now in peace, to love, to serve, extending the blessing of Almighty God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
A Prayer Service for Veterans Day © 2023 Lisa Degrenia, www.revlisad.com
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Lisa Degrenia
Lisa Degrenia is an ordained pastor currently serving Coronado Community United Methodist Church in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Lisa studied at the University of South Florida and received her Masters of Divinity from Duke Divinity School. She’s served congregations in Largo, St. Petersburg, DeBary, and Sarasota, Florida.
In addition to serving as a pastor, Lisa enjoys leading retreats, photography, theatre, travel, and writing. She is indebted to the many wonderful mentors and teachers in her life, including her mother who first gave her a love for words.
Lisa met her beloved husband Ed on a trip to NYC and they were married ten months later. They are blessed with two grown daughters, two sons-in-love, a brilliant grandchild, and two dogs. You can find more of her work at https://revlisad.com/.