Posted by Sigismund on December 10, 2007, at 23:57:53
In reply to Lou's reply to Sigismund- » Sigismund, posted by Lou Pilder on December 10, 2007, at 19:05:09
from "Cries and Whispers"
Agnes has died young after a painful illness, and this prayer is said over her body......
God, our Father, in His infinite wisdom and mercy has decided to call you home in the flower of your youth. You submitted to it patiently and uncomplainingly in the certain knowledge your sins would be forgiven through the death on the cross of your Lord, Jesus Christ. May your Father in Heaven have mercy on your soul when you step into his presence. May he let his angels disrobe you of the memory of your earthly pain.(The chaplain now addresses Agnes's spirit.)
If it is so that you have gathered our suffering in your poor body, if it is so that you have borne it with you through death, if it is so that you meet God over there in the other land, if it is so that He turns His face toward you, if it is so that you can speak the language this God understands, if it is so that you can speak to this God. If it is so, pray for us. Agnes, my dear child, listen to what I am now telling you. Pray for us who are left here on this dark and dirty earth under an empty and cruel Heaven. Lay your burden of suffering at God's feet, and ask Him to pardon us. Ask Him to free us at last from our anxiety, our weariness and our deep doubt. Ask Him for a meaning to our lives. Agnes, you who have suffered so uncomplainingly and so long, you must be worthy to plead our cause.
poster:Sigismund
thread:798827
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20070227/msgs/800061.html