It is never easy to say goodbye to a dearly beloved family member. Whether it is a parent, child, or sibling, death still has a sting that reaches into our heart.
The only way we can truly mourn the loss of a loved one is to recognize the beauty and glory reserved for all those who die in God’s grace. None of us knows what happens during those last moments of life on this earth, but we should entrust the soul of a loved one into the hands of God, trusting in his divine mercy.
Here is a prayer from 19th-century writer Elizabeth Julia Hasell, in her Meditations for Passion and Eastertide, that looks with hope at death and asks God for the grace to prepare for our own passing from this world, that we may join our family members in the glory of Heaven.
Let me, then, place myself in thought among “the spirits of just men made perfect;” some of whom I knew and honored while they were yet with us. They have reached the true perfection of the soul; what I thought their great attainments in wisdom and holiness seem to them now but childish things; for, no longer catching broken reflections of God’s goodness from a dim mirror, they see Him “face to face.”Grant, Lord, that I may one day walk before you with these your faithful in that “land of the living” where they now dwell; and that I may do so, give me grace to walk with you now. Make me now to know your voice and to follow you; that so when I walk through the valley of death I may fear no evil, knowing that you are with me.
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And today we celebrate...