A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: 11/2 All Souls Day

As November wraps her damp shroud
‘round nature’s shrugging shoulders,
our souls know well the chill
of autumn paving winter's way...

Bare limbs scratch gray skies,
and snatch the mourner’s veil
from hearts laid bare in shivering loss,
alone, exposed in grief…

November, Lord: no other month

could better claim the name All Souls

or set the scene for praying, weeping,

grieving those before us gone,

marked with your redeeming Cross…

So this November morning, Lord,

I offer you my loved ones:

created by your gentle hand,

claimed by your amazing grace,

now held, I pray, in your embrace

until we meet again...

I hold within my heart of hearts
   the ones I can't let go…

I offer from my hands to yours
   the ones whose hands held mine...

I weep a stream of tears for those
    whose absence haunts my days…

I lift up from my aching soul
    the pain of hearts I broke and bruised
and pray you heal their wounds, Lord,
    with tender, gentle mercy...

I offer up a prayer for those
   with none to pray for them:
       brothers, sisters never met,
       yet sisters, brothers nonetheless
       for all, in you, are one...

I offer you the souls who wait
   your final healing touch
to ready them for heaven,
   for life with you forever
    and peace that has no end...

(Take a few moments now to remember,
to write down or speak aloud,
the names of those who've died,
for whom you pray this All Souls Day...)

I offer you my grief, O Lord:
refresh me in your care
and help me trust I'll see again
the ones for whom I pray
when gathered in your kingdom's peace,

washed in saving grace,

we'll all be one, again, in you

in joy, for ever more...

Amen.

For your prayer this day: Pie Jesu from Requiem by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Below are the words in Latin and English.

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Pie Jesu,
   qui tollis peccata mundi,
   dona eis requiem.
Agnus Dei,
   qui tollis peccata mundi,
   dona eis requiem,
   sempiternam, sempiternam requiem.

Sweet Jesus,
   you take away the sins of the world,
   give them rest.
Lamb of God,
   you take away the sins of the world,
   give them rest,
   eternal rest.