Prayers for the Dead
Prayerfulness is deeply a part of you: in body, mind and spirit.
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Start with:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
For the Dead
Almighty Father,
I commend to your love my beloved (say their name)
who has departed this life.
Receive them into you loving arms;
– please forgive anything that needs your forgiveness.
May they know your peace and your presence.
May they give you glory and live in your eternal light.
I ask you this in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
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Read from a selection of the following readings, psalms and gospels:
A reading from the Book of Wisdom 3:1-9
The souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God
The souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God,
no torment shall ever touch them.
In the eyes of the unwise, they did appear to die,
their going looked like a disaster,
their leaving us, like annihilation;
but they are in peace.
If they experienced punishment as men see it,
their hope was rich with immortality;
slight was their affliction, great will their blessings be.
God has put them to the test
and proved them worthy to be with him;
he has tested them like gold in a furnace,
and accepted them as a holocaust.
When the time comes for his visitation they will shine out;
as sparks run through the stubble, so will they.
They shall judge nations, rule over peoples,
and the Lord will be their king for ever.
They who trust in him will understand the truth,
those who are faithful will live with him in love;
for grace and mercy await those he has chosen.
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Psalm 22(23)The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures
where he gives me repose.
Near restful waters he leads me,
to revive my drooping spirit.
He guides me along the right path;
he is true to his name.
If I should walk in the valley of darkness
no evil would I fear.
You are there with your crook and your staff;
with these you give me comfort.
You have prepared a banquet for me
in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil;
my cup is overflowing.
Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me
all the days of my life.
In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever.
Psalm 129(130)
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.
My soul is waiting for the Lord.
I count on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
more than watchman for daybreak.
(Let the watchman count on daybreak
and Israel on the Lord.)
Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.
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A Reading from the 1st Letter of St Paul to the Thessalonians 4:13-18The dead and the living at the time of the Lord’s coming
We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have died, to make sure that you do not grieve about them, like the other people who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus: God will bring them with him. We can tell you this from the Lord’s own teaching, that any of us who are left alive until the Lord’s coming will not have any advantage over those who have died. At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall stay with the Lord for ever. With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another.
A reading from Book of Revelation 7:9-12
The rewarding of the saints
After that I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted aloud, “Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels who were standing in a circle around the throne, surrounding the elders and the four animals, prostrated themselves before the throne, and touched the ground with their foreheads, worshiping God with these words, “Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.”
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A Reading from the Gospel of St Matthew 11:25-30You have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children
Jesus exclaimed, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
The Reading from the Gospel of St John 14:1-6
Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
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We pray for all our deadAlmighty Father,
we commend to your eternal love
our loved ones who have died.
Embrace them, Lord,
and keep them safe in your care.
May they know your divine light
and glorify you for all eternity.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Eternal rest given unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls
and the souls of all the faithful departed
through the mercy of God
rest in peace. Amen.
Our Father (The Lord’s Prayer) See (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4)
As children of the loving Father we say:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed by thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today’s Prayer
Lord you know me
Lord, you see me.
Lord, you call me
to be with you.
When I am lost
and cannot find my way,
Lord, please come and find me.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Blessing:
May the Lord bless us, and keep us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Excerpt from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, copyright (c) 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House, Inc. Reproduced with Permission.
Excerpt from THE GRAIL PSALMS, with permission of A P Watt at United Agents on behalf of The Grail, England. Copyright © 1963 by The Grail, England.
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