Almighty God, Abraham Lincoln reckoned your purposes to be just and perfect while struggling with the idea that you would ordain a terrible war to achieve them. We give you thanks for Lincoln’s witness against the evil of slavery, his insistence that it be contained, and his devotion to the Union, bequeathing to us the necessity of preserving it in peace, as you would have us do, for the sake of liberty and justice for all. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Photo: By granddaughter Harriet Passarella, going on six in May)