It doesn’t matter what denomination you belong to or how you choose to pray on the National Day of Prayer.

“It is a special day with many church denominations, businesses and individuals from all over our community and county coming together to pray, in one voice, for our nation,” organizer Maxine Wagner said.

The day falls on the first Thursday in May, starting back in 1775 with the Continental Congress. Each year the president of the United States signs a proclamation to designate the day as one for prayer.

The goal is to “wake up America,” through prayer and “bring people together across the nation to humble ourselves before God, seeking forgiveness for our corporate sins as a nation as well as personal sins,” Wagner said.

Wagner is part of the planning committee that organizes events for the day each year.

“I love being a part of the planning and participating in this most amazing day,” she said.

One such event will be from 6:45 to 8:45 a.m. at the Gainesville Civic Center, 830 Green St. NE, in Gainesville. It’s an annual breakfast with food catered by Longstreet Cafe.

Kelvin Cochran, former administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration and former Atlanta Fire Department chief, will be the featured speaker.

“(The breakfast) starts the day off with 350 to 400 individuals enjoying a delicious breakfast, listening to prayer leaders at each table all over the room praying for topics affecting our nation, experiencing uplifting music and being inspired by a great speaker,” Wagner said.

Festivities will then move to the downtown Gainesville square at noon. The “Prayer on the Square” event will have seven stations set up, each with prayer needs for the nation.

“(The square) provides a beautiful setting for an hour of music and prayer, where close to 200 people will rotate around seven prayer stations to once again hear prayers lifted to God on behalf of America,” Wagner said.

The National Day of Prayer’s website, www.nationaldayofprayer.org, provides more information about the day and events.

“It is both are spiritual responsibility according to God’s word and it is also our civic duty as a citizen or resident of this great nation to respond when we are called upon by our leaders,” the Rev. Dion Wilmore said on the website.

“As our nation struggles with foreign and domestic threats, economic insecurity, cultural tensions, and continual challenges to basic constitutional rights, citizens of the United States are preparing to heed the call by our elected leaders to rise to the occasion and exercise one of their most precious freedoms — the right to gather, turn to God, and pray.”