Opening:
O God, our creator, you have made this world out of love and gathered us together as one family.
REPUBLIC DAY CELEBRATION
(You may want to add hymns, reflections, prayer for the nation and the leaders and martyred soldiers in between)
Hymn:
Leader: Today on 26th January (2022), India celebrates her 72nd Republic Day. In capital Delhi, the main attraction of the Republic Day festival is the military and cultural parade to celebrate the implementation of the Indian Constitution in 1950. Prior to the celebration,
July 4 Saturday (U. S. Independence Day reflections on next page): Matthew 9:14-17: 14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 And no one puts a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; if it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” USCCB video reflections: http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/index.cfm