Reflection in November, the month of All Souls...

Violet Horizon by Peter Wileman

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 take not away,
for what is yours is ours also
if we are yours.

And life is eternal and love immortal,
and death is only a horizon,
and a horizon is nothing, save the limit of our sight.
Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see farther;
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 also be for evermore.

-Attributed to Bede Jarrett, O.P.