TO THOSE I LOVE AND THOSE WHO LOVE ME

When I am gone, release me, let me go.
I have so many things to see and do.
You must not tie yourself to me with tears,
Be happy that we had our years.
I gave you my love…You can only guess
How much you gave me in happiness.
I thank you for the love you each have shown,
But it’s time I travel on alone.
So grieve awhile for me…If grieve you must,
Then let your grief be comforted by trust.
It’s only for awhile that we must part
So bless the memories within your heart.
I won’t be far away..for life goes on..
So if you need me…call…and I will come.
Though you can’t see or touch me…I’ll be near,
And if you listen with your heart, you’ll hear
All of my love around you soft and clear.
And then when you must come this way alone,
I’ll greet you with a smile and welcome you home.

PRAYER FOR DECEASED FRIENDS

We seem to give them back to you, O God, who gave them to us.  Yet as you did not lose them in giving, so we do not lose them by their return.  Not as the world gives do you give, O Lover of souls.  What you give you take not away, for what is yours is ours also if we are yours.

And life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only an horizon, and an horizon is nothing, save the limit of our sight.  Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further;  cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly;  draw us closer to yourself that we may know ourselves to be nearer our loved ones who are with you.

And while you do prepare a place for us, prepare us also for that happy place, that where you are, we may be also for evermore.

Fr Bede Jarrett O.P.

I’M ONLY IN THE NEXT ROOM

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I, and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name,
speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,
let it be spoken without effort, without a trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was;
there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
just around the corner.
All is well

Henry Scott Holland, 1847-1918,
Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral.