Be thou, triune God...

Be Thou, triune God, in the midst of us as we give thanks for those who have gone from the sight of earthly eyes. They, in Thy nearer presence, still worship with us in the mystery of the one family in heaven and on earth.

We remember those whom Thou didst call to high office, as the world counts high. They bore the agony of great decisions and laboured to fashion the Ark of the Covenant nearer to Thy design.

We remember those who, little recognised in the sight of men, bore the heat and the burden of the unrecorded day. They served serene because they knew Thou hadst made them priests and kings, and now shine as the stars for ever.

If it be Thy holy will, tell them how we love them, and how we miss them, and how we long for the day when we shall meet with them again.

God of all comfort, we lift into Thine immediate care those recently bereaved, who sometimes in the night time cry ‘Would God it were morning,’ and in the morning cry ‘Would God it were night.’ Bereft of their dear one, too often they are bereft also of the familiar scenes where happiness once reigned.

Lift from their eyes the too distant vision of the resurrection at the last day. Alert them to hear the voice of Jesus saying ‘I AM Resurrection and I AM Life’: that they may believe this.

Strengthen them to go on in loving service of all Thy children. Thus shall they have communion with Thee and, in Thee, with their beloved. Thus shall they come to know, in themselves, that there is no death and that only a veil divides, thin as gossamer.

AMEN.

--George MacLeod, quoted in Neil Paynter, ed., This is the Day: Readings and Meditations from the Iona Community (Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications, 2002). Prayer for Month 1 Day 31.

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