fathers day liturgy

I did a really effective liturgy for Mothers Day, so now I have to have something equally effective for Fathers Day. I've been surfing around various web sites for ideas. TEC doesn't seem to have anything specific for either of these days. With thanks to several inspiring sights (whose names I can't recall) that got me thinking on the right track, I submit this liturgy I created for anyone else to use. Paying it forward is my thanks for the help of unknown creative liturgists.

Fathers’ Day Liturgy

(All fathers are invited to come forward.)

Celebrant: Lord, on this day set aside to honor and remember fathers, we give you thanks for our dads. We thank you for the men who helped to raised us, who were our fathers in childhood. Whether birth father, adopted father, older brother, uncle, grandfather, or stepfather, we thank you for those men who held us and fed us, who taught us, cared for us, and kept us safe and secure. We pray that our lives may reflect the love they have shown us. Let us pray.

Celebrant: We pray for the men who fathered us into birth, for the men we have called father and dad.

All: God grant them joy.

Celebrant: We pray for expectant fathers.

All: God grant them patience.

Celebrant: We pray for new fathers experiencing changes they could not predict.

All: God grant them confidence to trust you for the future.

Celebrant: We pray for all men who have assumed the father’s role in a child’s life.

All: God grant them satisfaction for a job well done.

Celebrant: We pray for the men those whose arms ache to cradle their own children, for fathers who have borne the pain of losing a child.

All: God grant them hope.

Celebrant: We pray for foster fathers, step fathers, and fathers by adoption.

All: God grant them true happiness in the mystery of fatherhood.

Celebrant: We pray for all who have been deprived of their fathers, through war, violence, imprisonment, addiction, divorce, or separation; for those whose fathers have left home in search of work in another land.

All: God grant that wounds may be healed, and families are mended together.

Celebrant: We pray for our fathers who, by their words and actions, have shown us the face of our heavenly Father.

All: God grant them guidance to continue to teach us your ways.

Celebrant: We pray for fathers who have laid down their lives for their children.

All: God grant them eternal peace.

Celebrant:

We pray to you this day our heavenly Father, for the men who are our earthly fathers. We thank you for the gift of these men in our lives. We thank you for their strength and integrity. We honor their patience and sacrifices. For all fathers, living or dead, those nearby or those distanced by miles, disease, or division, grant that they all may be embraced and strengthened by the loving arms of God, the one Father of us all.

All: Amen.