Prayers for Special Services
These prayers are offered for the special services that the Church Order says may be called in the churches: the five evangelical feast days of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, as well as a day of prayer, the national Thanksgiving Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and services in times of great distress or blessing.
Christmas 
Merciful Father, You so loved the world that You gave Your only begotten Son. He who was rich became poor for us, the eternal Word made flesh, a great Light shining in the darkness. Only because of Your Word and Spirit have we seen that Light and been drawn into its brightness. Give us the grace humbly and joyfully to receive Your Son, even as the shepherds and princes who welcomed Him, and to look no further for our redemption than to this child lying in a manger. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Good Friday
Our Father, who so loved the world that You gave Your only begotten Son, we acknowledge and marvel at Your mercy. Even while we were enemies, You reconciled us; even while we were strangers, You made us fellow heirs with Christ of all eternal blessings; even while we stood condemned, You redeemed us; even while we were imprisoned, You delivered us from the tyranny of sin, death, and the devil. On this solemn occasion, we loathe our miserable estate and celebrate Your marvelous grace. Beneath the cross of Christ, we come to know that ours is the guilt, but Yours the forgiveness; ours the condemnation, but Yours the gift of justification; ours the bondage, yet Yours the freedom of adoption and new obedience. Even the faith with which we confess our dear Savior’s sacrifice was won for us by His death. Therefore, we cry out to You in sorrow for our sins and in thanksgiving for Your gift. Give us the grace, we pray, to receive again this word of the cross, which alone can refresh us on our pilgrim way, and send us out again into the world as witnesses to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Amen.
Easter
Holy Father, giver of all perfect gifts, we join the heavenly choir to herald the news that You have defeated the powers of sin, death, and condemnation by the victory of Jesus Christ, Your Son, over the grave. We confess that the circumstances of this present age often rise up to testify against the promise that You have declared in Your Word. Nevertheless, we bring the experience of our hearts under Your judgment. You have raised Jesus Christ from the dead as the firstfruits of the whole harvest at the last day. As in His resurrection You have brought the new creation into this passing evil age, by faith may we know in this life that we have been raised up with Christ and seated at Your right hand, and by sight may we know in the life to come the resurrection of our bodies. All of this we pray, with joy and thanksgiving, in Christ’s name. Amen.
Ascension
Almighty God,
although we could not ascend to Your holy place,
Your Son descended to save us.
After He won our redemption,
He ascended to the seat of all authority and dominion at Your right hand
to plead our cause before Your throne,
to guarantee our place in heaven by taking our own flesh there in Him,
and to rule over all of His and our enemies.
He did all this for our salvation and the glory of Your holy name.
Help us to receive and to make known throughout the world this good news that Christ Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords.
And fill our hearts with longing expectation for His return in power and glory to restore all things.
This we pray in the name of Christ our King. Amen.
Pentecost
Our Father in heaven, we give You thanks, especially on this day, for the gift of Your Holy Spirit. Just as You sent Your Son to redeem us, You sent Your Spirit to renew us after His image, and to begin even now the new creation that awaits us fully and finally at the last day. Forgive us for grieving the Spirit, forgetting the great work that he performed at Pentecost and continues to perform as He makes Your Word effectual for the justification and sanctification of sinners. We give You praise for sending Your Spirit of adoption into our hearts, so that we may call You Abba, Father. We thank You for His ministry of testifying to Christ, convicting the world of sin and judgment, and opening our hearts to receive the gospel of Your Son. Even now, through the gospel, He is gathering from all nations a church to declare Your goodness. May we be filled again with marvelous wonder at this saving operation of the Holy Spirit, who, together with You and the Son, is worshiped and glorified, one God, world without end. Amen.
Day of Prayer
O God of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, we have assembled to pray to You. Though we are fully persuaded that we are unworthy to enter into Your presence, we are confident that You will certainly hear our prayer for the sake of Christ our Lord, as He has promised in His Word.
We acknowledge You as the Creator of all things in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth. We adore You for the grandeur and beauty of all Your works. We adore Your lovingkindness, in having made all things in service to the needs and happiness of Your children. What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands—the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea. You have given to us for food every moving thing that lives, the green plant yielding seed, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You have crowned us with steadfast love and mercy.
We adore You for Your gracious promises of old to sustain Your precious saints by Your providence. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. You visit the earth and water it. You make springs gush forth in the valleys and flow between the hills. You cause the grass to grow for livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth, wine to gladden his heart, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen his heart. You make the fields soft with showers; You bless their growth. The meadows are clothed with flocks; the valleys are decked with grain; they shout and sing together for joy. You crown the year with Your bounty. O Lord, how manifold are Your works; in wisdom You have made them all.
Our Father, we also confess that Your providence is, in all circumstances, not only in the riches of Your bounty and compassion, but also in Your righteous judgments. You open Your hand, and we are filled with good; You hide Your face, and we are troubled. But we know, O God, that in Your wrath You remember mercy; and we acknowledge Your long-suffering and Your loving-kindness. Give us grace to believe that whom the Lord loves He chastens, and make us ever ready to offer to You, in spirit and in truth, the prayer of the holy prophet: though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we will joy in the God of our salvation. For we are sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
O gracious God, we give You thanks that despite our many transgressions of Your holy laws, You have constantly done good to us for the sake of Christ, Your Son. You have given us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. These have been among the witnesses of Your great goodness, and, for those who believe, assurances that You are the living God. Teach us to believe with a strong faith that You are Lord of the seasons—that You cause the earth to bring forth, and it obeys You. Accept our thanksgivings for all Your blessings; fill our hearts with humility and love, with gratitude and trust. [Specific thanksgiving may be offered.] Gracious God, continue Your loving-kindness to us and assist us to show forth the fruits of grace in a sincere obedience to Your will, through whom all blessings flow, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
National Day of Thanksgiving
Our Sovereign God, who created all things for Your pleasure and who gives to all life, breath, and every good thing, we thank You for our creation, our preservation, and all the blessings of this life. For rain and sunshine, in abundance and in lack, we acknowledge that our times are in Your hands. You supply all of Your creatures with Your good gifts, the just and the unjust alike. Nevertheless, we especially give You praise for the surpassing greatness of Your saving grace, which You have shown to us in Christ Jesus our Savior. For our election in Him before the foundation of the world, for our redemption by Him in His life, death, and resurrection, for our effectual calling, justification, sanctification, and all of the blessings of our union with Him, we give You our heartfelt thanks. And we look with great anticipation toward that day when You will raise us to life everlasting, glorified and confirmed in righteousness, so that we may sing Your praises without the defilement of our present weaknesses, distractions, and sins. As You have given us these gifts, we ask that You would give us grateful hearts, so that we may serve our neighbors in love. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, who taught us to pray, saying: “Our Father …”
New Year’s Eve
Almighty and most gracious God, as we close the year with this day, we thank You for all Your tender mercies bestowed upon us during the whole course of our lives, and especially during this past year. Accept our thanksgivings for all Your blessings; fill our hearts with humility and love, with gratitude and trust. [Specific thanksgiving may be offered.] For all these blessings we offer to You the sacrifice of our praises, and we acknowledge that through Your great goodness and help we are enabled to live our lives in peace, even though we have offended You in countless ways. O merciful God, pardon all who sincerely repent of their sins. Grant that, while our years are passing away, we may work out our salvation with fear and trembling in the time You give to us. Enable us to press onward, always towards the end of our heavenly calling, even that blessed eternity, which Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Lord, has prepared for us. Amen.
New Year’s Day
Eternal and almighty God, we humble ourselves in Your presence to dedicate to You the beginning of this year by adoration, prayer, and praise.
We come before Your Supreme Majesty and acknowledge with gratitude the manifold blessings which You have freely bestowed upon us through the whole course of our lives. We thank You that, having preserved us to the present time, You have permitted us to enter upon a new year. You have not ceased, O most gracious God, to give to us the abundance of Your loving-kindness. But You have especially sustained us with every spiritual blessing by keeping in our midst the light of Your gospel. You have granted us repentance through Your mighty help, through Your great goodness, and through the warnings of Your Word and Spirit, and have mercifully given to us favorable opportunities to grow in grace. Despite our unworthiness, for the love of Jesus Christ, take not away from us Your protection and favor.
Moved by Your grace, we devote ourselves to You at the beginning of this year, desiring to employ it better than we have done in the years that are past. And since this day also warns us that our years pass away like a flood, like a dream, give us grace that we may seriously number our days, that we may have a heart of wisdom, that we may discern the vanity of this life, and that we may aspire to that better life, when days and months and years shall be counted no more, forever. While we continue in the flesh, may we more and more live, not according to its desires, but according to Your will. And grant, O God, that when our years shall come to an end, and the day of our death arrives, we may depart in the peace that passes all understanding and in the sure hope of life everlasting. Favorably hear us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.