Choose a Prayer:

What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?…. For I am convinced that neither death nor life… will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

Romans 8: 35, 38, 39

After the Civil War, citizens of the North and the South felt a need to honor those fallen in the war. On various days people from different communities would place flowers at the graves of those they wished to honor. The day came to be known as Decoration Day. By 1868, the northern states were keeping the day on May 30.

In 1882, the day was renamed Memorial Day and extended to honor the fallen in other wars. Since 1950, Congress has designated Memorial Day as a day when the people of the United States might unite in prayer for permanent peace. In 1971, President Nixon declared it a national holiday and designated the commemoration for the last Monday in May.

Besides honoring those Americans from the armed forces, it is also a day for personal remembrance of all loved ones. Flowers on graves, church services, visits to the cemetery are all ways to mark the day with dignity and solemnity. In this spirit it is only fitting to make this day one of prayer in our Catholic faith with its long tradition of remembering the faithful departed.

Father, hear our prayer. You are the source of forgiveness and salvation. By the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, may our friends, and relatives who have gone from this world come to share eternal happiness with all your saints. We ask this through Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

* Send your prayerful intentions to be remembered at Our Lady’s Shrine.