In honor of the City of Saints, an Invocation of the Saints:

  • Bridegroom of poverty, our brother Francis, follower of Jesus and friend of creation:
    Stand here beside us.

  • John XXIII, Pope and friend of the poor, who longed for the unity of all people:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Peacemakers in the world, Dag Hammarskjold and Desmond Tutu, called children of God:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Mask of the Christ, Gautama the Buddha, and Mother Teresa,
    Stand here beside us.

  • Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglass, and all fighters for freedom:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Madman in America, Johnny Appleseed, planter of Eden:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Visionary and apostle, John of Patmos, resisting the Beast:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Visionaries and poets, Caedmon, Dante, William Blake, John Bunyan and Isaac Watts, pilgrims of the inner light:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Faithful woman, Mary Magdalene, first witness of the new life:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and all who speak the soul’s language:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Students of the earth, Charles Darwin, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Margaret Mead, voyagers in the past and in the future:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Children of the synagogue, Albert Einsten, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud, divers in the sea of humanity:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Witnesses in England, John and Charles Wesley, street ministers:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Reformers and leaders of protest, Amos of Tekoa, Paul of Tarsus, Jan Hus, Martin Luther, and all your companions:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Menno Simons and George Fox, explorers in the Gospel:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Confessors in chains, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Berrigan brothers, war resisters:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Confessor in Africa, Augustine of Hippo, city-planner for God’s people:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Confessor in Russia, Boris Pasternak, poet of reconciliation:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Confessors in America, Henry David Thoreau, Robert Frost and Thomas Merton, hermits and free thinkers:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Innocents of Guernica, Sharpeville, and Birmingham, and all victims of lynching, in your undeserved deaths:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Innocents of Coventry, Dresden, Tokyo, and all victims of bombing caught up in a sea of fire:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Innocents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, pierced by needles of flame:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Innocents of Auschwitz, Dachau, and all concentration camps, in your despair and dying:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Innocents of Biafra and Armenia, objects of genocide:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Innocents of Wounded Knee and Mylai, God’s wheat ground in the mill of war:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Martyrs of Africa: Perpetua, mother; Felicity, slave; and all your companions;
    Stand here beside us.

  • Martyrs and confessors, Polycarp, Ignatius, and Justin, who refused to offer incense to Caesar:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Martyr in Colombia, Camillo Torres, priest and revolutionary:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Martyrs of Kent State, witnesses to the hopes of the young;

  • Martyr for America, Martin Luther King, organizer for peace and justice:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Unwed mother, blessed Mary, fair wellspring of our liberation:
    Stand here beside us.

  • Our leader and friend, Jesus the Son of God, bright cornerstone our unity in a new Spirit;
    Stand here beside us.

  • Almighty One, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of these your servants, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last, with all your saints, we attain your eternal joy.

Keep us mindful of the people of the New Orleans, and all who are threatened by Hurricane Katrina, and empower us to serve them with the best we have to offer; Susan Hu and her family, Codetalker, his granddaughter, and her family; Jim, friend of Poli Sigh, in need of a transplant, and now again at the top of the list; and all who are in need.

And let all the people say: