O God, our help in ages past,
We commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be.
God of Love, stretch us to encompass more and more of You, as we encounter your holy presence in others. We thank you for the variety of sexual orientation and gender expression among us; grant that our differences may serve to broaden our embrace of You and the diversity of Your creation. Teach us to honor one another as unique expressions of your One Love, and to protect the rights of all, especially those most at risk from hatred, discrimination and prejudice.
You have commanded us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before your throne.
O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant, in the midst of doubt and uncertainty, the grace to ask what you would have me to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save me from all false choices, and that in you light I may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Adapted from the Book of Common Prayer