Services
at the Washington National Cathedral
for the Dedication of the World War II Memorial
Prayer
for Saturday Memorial Service, 28 May 2004
Lord, though this war is past, its great legacy is ever with
us. We gather in your sight now with quieter eyes about it
all and survey the years of a generation which has gone before.
They were called forth in their unhesitating response to a
world disrupted and disheartened. They faced the darkness.
Through this generation, light and redemption embraced the
world. Their conviction was formed by a country of adoption
or birth amidst family and diverse communities. . Americans
all. A place, Lord, you have blessed not only with the riches
of natural beauty and resource but with the riches that can
come from men and women in love with the dream of freedom
and justice for all. Through stamina of spirit they found
that by parting the clouds of despair, a glimmer of hope for
the future would appear. By your hand they achieved greatness
by living courageously at home and abroad in spite of fear.
Thank you for giving us this greatest generation as examples
at this precise moment in history. Help us, O Lord, to be
a wise people, a courageous people. A nation, who despite
current fears that beset us, lives with its anxieties. May
fear not become fearsome among us. We learned, in part, by
them that our faith will never grow beyond our confession
of confidence in you; help us to find and rely on those reservoirs
of faith once again. We stand before you now and we ask this
in your Holy Name. Amen.
Office
of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies