Father's Day 2008

"Now begins the craft of the father..."

O God, our heavenly Father, by whose wisdom mankind has been ordained to live in families, and by whose goodness our homes are esablished upon the foundations of love and fellowship, we beseech thee to accept our thanksgiving for all the blessings of home and family life.

WE BESEECH THEE TO HEAR US, HEAVENLY FATHER.

O Lord, we praise thee for our fathers, who in childhood guided us with the authority of love and shared with us their wisdom in the ways of life.

WE PRAISE THEE, O LORD.

For happy hours of comradeship which they have given to us and for hopes of high adventures which they have fulfilled,

WE PRAISE THEE, O LORD.

For all the ennobling influences that have come to us from their devotion to honor and virtue, piety and faith,

WE PRAISE THEE, O LORD.

Help us, we beseech thee, to walk in all the ways of life, every worthy of the trust and hopes that they have placed in us.

WE BESEECH THEE TO HEAR US, HEAVENLY FATHER.

O Lord, we praise thee for our mothers, who have been devoted to us with a love like unto thine own.

WE PRAISE THEE, O LORD.

For the holy faith which fashioned our first thoughts of thee, patterned our first prayers and directed our infant feet to thy holy house,

WE PRAISE THEE, O LORD.

For the tender patience whtih ministered to all our needs, for the heart of compassion that rejoiced in our joy and carried the burden of our sorrow as her own,

WE PRAISE THEE, O LORD.

Grant, O heavenly Father, that the goodness of our mother's fatih and love may ever be the guardian angel of our souls, and that we may fulfill in our lives her noblest dreams and her unselfish hopes.

WE BESEECH THEE TO HEAR US, HEAVENLY FATHER.

O Lord, we invoke thy blessing on the men and women who have toiled to build and warm our homes, to fashion our raiment, and to wrest from the sea and land the food that nourishes us and our children.

WE BESEECH THEE TO HEAR US, HEAVENLY FATHER.

We beseech thee to bless the men and women who teach the children and youth of our nation. Into their hands we daily commit the dearest that we have. Grant them, who are the helpers of the home and coworkers with thee, to bring forth from the life of the young those noble impulses of character and ability which thou hast placed in them.

WE BESEECH THEE TO HEAR US, HEAVENLY FATHER.

Be ever present in our homes, O Lord, the unseen guest at every table, the slient listener to every conversation. Grant that the spirit of thy Son, our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, may abide with us and ennoble all our relationships and sanctify our tasks.

HEAR OUR PRAYER, O LORD.

Sustain us in all the needs of life, bless our labor, gladden our lesiure, rejoice with us in our laughter, comfort us in our tears, and grant that through all the trials and anguish of our mortal days we may live with such triumphant faith, that we may be counted worthy to be joined at last with all our loved ones in the eternal fellowship of thy heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.