To those who serve and have served in our military: thank you for your service and sacrifice. To those who have military spouses and those who have military children, parents, and/or grandparents: Thank you for their service and sacrifice. As Memorial Day approaches, and we remember and honor those who have given their lives in sacrifice for our freedom...

READ: Psalm 42

The psalmist is honest with God in his mourning. Whether mourning the loss and memory of loved ones, or more generally mourning the experience of loss in this current season of life, how does this Psalm connect with your experience? 

1. What sticks out to you in this Psalm? 
2. What does this Psalm say about God? 
3. How can you remember God in the midst of mourning? 

READ: 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

1. Do you truly associate and experience God as the God of all comfort? 
2. How does this passage bring you hope and comfort?  
3. What does sharing God’s comfort with others look like for you, and is there someone the Lord is bringing to mind whom you may share his comfort with?

LISTEN: I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say - Traditional (arr. Audrey Assad) 

LISTEN: Come to Me - Bethel Music

PRAYER - from the Book of Common Prayer

O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our brothers and sisters whom we have lost.

We thank you for giving them to us, their family and friends, to know and to love as a companion on our earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth, until, by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen.