bereavement

We seem to give them back to you, O God, who gave them to us.
Yet as you did not lose them in giving, so we do not lose them by their return.
Not as the world gives, do you give, O lover of souls.
What you give you do not take away, for what is yours is ours also if we are yours.
And life is eternal and love immortal, and death is only an horizon, and an horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further;
cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly;
draw us closer to yourself that we may know ourselves to be nearer to our loved ones who are with you.
And while you prepare a place for us,
prepare us also for that happy place,
that where you are we may be also for evermore.

~ Bede Jarrett, OP

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.