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.