God of  Peace,
We look back on more than a  century scarred with war,
and ask you to guide our memory.

We bring you our memories and stories of
two World Wars, the   Korean War, the  Vietnam War,
the First Gulf War and the War on Terror in Iran and Afghanistan.
We bring you our childhood memories of heroic soldiers –
brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, fathers and mothers and grandparents –
and our memories of families grieving for loved ones.

We bring you our gratitude for self-sacrifice
and our sadness at loss,
our despair that wars could ever happen,
and our inability to understand it all.

God of Peace, we bring our memories.
Help us to understand the truth and shape the future.

We bring you our cloudy memories of wars
that we noticed for a while than then forgot,
because the countries were far off or
it was too painful to remember.
We know our sympathy for our far off wars and peoples
tend to wane as we shut ourselves
from the discomfort and horror of  wars.

God of Peace,
we bring you our memories.
Help us to understand the truth and shape the future.

We pray for the victims of war –
the disabled, those living with trauma,
those grieving, those who are angry.
For communities laid waste, countries devastated,
generations scarred and traumatized.

Uphold them with your power to bring healing and forgiveness,
and guide us to ways we can be part of that process of recovery
for all who have been affected.

God of Peace,  We bring you our memories.
Help us to understand the truth and shape the future.

Adapted from Prayer for Remembrance, by Roddie Crowie, Wild Goose – big book of worship resources 2. Iona Community.  This prayer was written for United Kingdom Remembrance Day. It was adapted for the United States Memorial Day.