PRAYER OF THOSE WHO REMEMBER
Interfaith Benediction by the Reverend Paul Oakley offered at
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL SERVICE
Co-sponsored by Governor Pat Quinn and the Jewish Federations of Illinois
Old State Capitol, Springfield, Illinois
11:00 AM, Thursday, May 1, 2014

 

God of our hearts,
God of our understandings,
God who gives us hope and inspires us to commitment,
God who commands us to remember:

We come together today with hearts contrite and broken;
We come together with minds awake, comprehension striving against incomprehension;
We come together in hope growing in the fertile soil of our dedication to prevent future atrocities;
We come, remembering all those lost to past hatred and indifference.

We feel deeply the call to remember those lost in camps and ghettos, in streets and forests;
Their sheer number leaves us reeling;
Each one was truly a unique world of possibility forever lost to us;
We also feel the call to honor the lives and legacies of those who survived.

May we learn to carry their worlds that were cut short.
May we turn from apathy and prevent the growth of hatred and inequity.
May we become worthy of the duty of remembrance that is ours.
May we never forget them.

Let us make this world a place where the cry “Never again!” is not uttered in vain;
And in promise let the people say: Amen.

_____

 

This prayer is included the the Worship Web collection of words for use in Unitarian Universalist worship at: https://www.uua.org/worship/words/prayer/prayer-those-who-remember