A Prayer for the Dead

A Quaker Meeting House

Image Source = Ahc

Prayer Source = Horton Davies, ed., The Communion of Saints:  Prayers of the Famous (Grand Rapids, MI:  Eerdmans, 1990), p. 97

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We give back to you, O God, those whom you gave to us.  You did not lose them when you gave them to us, and we do not lose them by their return to you.  Your dear Son has taught us that life is eternal and love cannot die.  So death is only an horizon and an horizon is only the limit of our sight.  Open our eyes to see more clearly, and draw us closer to you that we may know that we are nearer to our loved ones who are with you.  You have told us that you are preparing a place for us, prepare us also for that happy place, that where you are we may also be always, O dear Lord of life and death.

–William Penn (1644-1718)