PRIEST: Let us pray with faith in the Resurrection, with thankfulness for friends and family who have gone before us, and with hope of that great day when we shall all be united in the eternal love of our God
READER: For those of our families, parish community and friends who have died in the friendship of Christ, for all in our parish’s 172 year history who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith … may their memory inspire us to continue our Pilgrimage to God with great love and deep faith…
Let us pray to the Lord…
[response sung: JESUS, REMEMBER ME…]
For all whose Funerals have been celebrated here at St Nicholas’s this past year, especially those who have died during this Covid Crisis, that they may know eternal life and endless peace before the face of God; for all who are recently bereaved, as the pain is still sharp and the darkness still paralysing, that they may be comforted…
Let us pray to the Lord…
[response sung: JESUS, REMEMBER ME…]
For those who grieve the loss of the ones they love and experience the emptiness of bereavement, in particular those unable to grieve with family and friends because of Covid restrictions … may the Holy Spirit bring them consolation in the dark hours, and the touch of his love in the lonely days, until light begins to dawn…
Let us pray to the Lord…
[response sung: JESUS, REMEMBER ME…]
For those who have died alone, unloved and unmourned; for all who have perished in the Mediterranean, the English Channel or in our lorry parks in the refugee journey to freedom; for the forgotten ones with no-one to pray for them and yet are so precious in the eyes of our God who never forgets one of his little ones…
Let us pray to the Lord…
[response sung: JESUS, REMEMBER ME…]
That we may live truly as a people of the Resurrection, passionately in love with life, generously life-giving and valuing and protecting life from the womb to the grave…
Let us pray to the Lord…
[response sung: JESUS, REMEMBER ME…]
Mary, who mourned your Crucified Son, and shared in the Life of your Risen Jesus, pray for us and all our dead…
HAIL MARY…
We pray in silence for all the departed…
PRIEST: Lord God, well-spring of all life, hear the cry of our hearts for those we mourn, embrace them in the fire of your tender love and raise them into the fullness of Risen Life, through Your Son and our Brother Jesus, alive forever and ever…