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Dear All,
We gather in hope as we are not alone. Around us is a great company — the saints who see the face of God, and the faithful departed who have gone ahead of us and are being made ready for that same joy. One family, one communion, one Lord.
All you holy saints of God, pray for us.
We hold before you, Lord, the ones we have so recently lost — the faces still fresh in our memory, the voices we still expect to hear. We do not grieve as those without hope. We give them back to you, who love them more than we ever could.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Lord Jesus, you are the resurrection and the life. Let the saints lift our eyes. Let the memory of our dead make us gentler and braver. Keep us in that company, and bring us, with all the saints and all our beloved dead, to the joy that never ends.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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