For All Souls Day

The Faithful Departed

Are we to mourn our dead, our beloved,
as men that have no hope

Thou, O God, art not the God of the dead,
but of the living.
In thy resurrection, O Christ, we celebrate ours.
The gift of thy life, O Holy Spirit, is not for a season,
but for ever.

As long as thou art with thy servants, thy children,
they are with thee; they lose nothing by dying.
They depart out of the world, but not out of thy family.
They vanish from our sight, but not from thy care.
One sun hath set upon them, but a greater is risen.
They are not dead; nay, it is death that hath died in them,
death that is buried in their grave.
They leave behind the mortal, to put on immortality;
theirs is entrance into healing, into rest, into glory.

Lord, thou hast made, endowed, redeemed, employed
thy children
thou canst not desert nor annihilate them,
canst not but be gracious eternally.
Thou forgettest not the dead whom we forget;
thou rewardest the benefactors we never knew.
Thou who holdest worlds in life
holdest them.

O Father, O Saviour, O Giver of Life,
by thy mercy, thine unalterable love,
Gather thy sons and daughters together unto thyself,
those who have taken thee for their strength,
those who have offered thee thanks and praise.
May they rejoice in the Jerusalem of grace and peace,
and praise thee among the choirs of the blessed,
in joy without end.

Eric Milner-White(1884–1963):
‘My God My Glory’