May 11, 2023
O brave soldiers,
the world could not take
Christ from your hearts;
though it tried to expunge Him
from the army in which you served,
your allegiance to the holy One of Israel,
our Lord and God,
remained firm,
and so death you preferred
to life without Jesus –
pray for us who are so weak in faith,
that our stale complacency
might be invigorated
by the blood of our Savior,
the blood you yourselves shed
as you filled up what was lacking
in the sufferings of Christ.
Pray we shall not turn
from the sacrifice to which the Lord calls us
but embrace with joy the cross we must bear,
and which bears us unto Heaven.