HOMELESS Memorial Manual
SAMPLES: Services and Prayers
PROLOGUE: These are Funeral Sermons, Poetry & Snippets, and Graveside Orders & Prayers for burial of various types of circumstances. These need to be ADJUSTED for Gender & Age, perhaps cause of death; Also tempered for their religious references / preferences ~ by substitution or omission.
Basically / (over-)Simply ~ the difference between a Christian/Theological Sermon and a Nonsectarian Message is in ‘terminology’. A Sermon emphasizes Faith & Trust in the Divine; a Message merely expresses Hope & Desire as its foundational premise. One assumes: a sacred soul, the other: an indomitable spirit. One accepts Life as a Gift from a Creator; the other as a Given from Nature.
Both have the Goal and Hope of some semblance of ULTIMATE Peace, Enjoyment, Justice, Healing, Reward and Vindication after our Journey through life. However, both Travelers also experience Disappointment, Frustration, Loss, Betrayal, Angst, Fear, and Rejection, as well as Attachments and Love during the Journey.
A funeral is the time to lift each up in a presumed understanding that the deceased held these, or the mourners mostly hold them in their similar experience together.
Thus, the funeral / graveside service is our opportunity to address some of these various realities and emotions in an effort to bring some closure to the end of a life and the end of an ongoing relationship with that person.
[This “Manual” is intended to be SHARED as a WORD.DOC to Providers so they may scan the Contents and Select what they want, then DRAG desired portions to you own Word.Doc for personalizing your Service / Sermon, etc.]
These are some Goals of this brief ‘Graveside’ time spent together.
1) to acknowledge our loss and the sadness of this person’s death – whatever the circumstance…
2) There is, on the other hand, one “benefit” of Death and Dying: our release from bodies that are mortal: either broken by age or disease, maybe by accidental or criminal injury…
3) Thirdly, too often “Death” appears to have the final say / last word. But no, we also proclaim, at a “good funeral,” that there is resolution & hope of a ‘happy ending’…
4) A fourth Goal for the Gathering might be to articulate that which we value and appreciate about this person who has now left us / been taken from us…
ORDERS of SERVICE – in a facility or at graveside
as well as Prayers & Petitions to include:
Some Standard / Traditional Bible Passages:
Isaiah 65:17-25 (NRSV)
17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 19 … no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. 20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth.
II Corinthians 4:14-5:5 (selected verses) “The Love Chapter”
Romans 5:1-11 “Right With God”
Romans 12:1-2 “Life In God’s Service”
Matthew 11:27-30 “Come to Me All Who Labor”
Mark 16:1-8 “The Stone is Rolled Away”
Order for Graveside Service or a more Formal Funeral:
OPENING PRAYER
FAMILY / FRIENDS’ ~ TRIBUTES & REMEMBERANCES – (aka: Open Mic)
Prayer after TRIBUTES:
Song / Hymn
SCRIPTURE / READINGS ~
SERMON / MESSAGE
Song / Hymn ~ soloist or recording
PRAYER after SERMON Hymn:
Now, Lord, remember us in your Kingdom as you Taught us to Pray, OUR FATHER…….
COMMENDATION: aside of casket / by ashes table / at grave
Funeral or Committal Prayer ~
after a CREED or another place:
Heavenly Father, you know we are tested by every death.
We pray for all who go blindly in this life ~ unable to overcome
their sorrow & who are consumed by their losses.
May we be spared such depth of depression and saved from
our own despair.
Give us renewed Courage and Confidence to face this life
lived as yet by faith in your Beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
We pray for your help to accept what we cannot understand,
AS we seek to understand what we find hard to accept.
Grant each of us a Vision of your Love and Amazing Grace.
Remind each of us that life is not lived in Vain, and that _name__’s
life was lived with many Values and Virtues that your Son
showed us leads to Abundant Life.
Permit us, Lord, in your kindness, to be glad for the Gift of any
and every Remembrance of _name__’s life that we shared
together here on earth.
We give thanks for a spirit of Gratitude for the rest of our days.
Free us from any real or imagined shortcomings in our
relationships with each other.
Make us confident, Lord, of your Compassion to commend
__name__ to your keeping, and ourselves to your Care. AMEN
Committal Prayer OR after Tributes & Remembrances Shared
Heavenly Father, into your Strong and Loving Care we commit all of us who mourn the death of _name__. Strengthen her [list any family / relatives, personal & professional acquaintances, etc – by name or by title.] Lord, with your unending Grace, sustain them again, now.
Sanctify our tears. Remind us today of Things that cannot Perish…and of Things that will remain Eternal. May that and our Faith, give us the “PEACE that passes all understanding” Jesus Promised. We thank you for _name__ who was a unique part of this [Family and a Faithful servant in your Church and Community] with all her special Gifts. …Continued…
A PRAYER AFTER AN UNEXPECTED LOSS:
Lord, we come to You this day feeling the wound of a fresh loss and the reminder of other losses in our weary, life’s journey. Each loss makes our heart break a little and our voice crack as we speak of it, as we remember it, as we feel it ~ however many days / months later.
We are frozen in disbelief. How can this be? It wasn’t supposed to be this way! We fumble for answers, for truths to make this more palatable & plausible. We demand answers that go beyond shallow theologies and trite platitudes.
Bless us, Lord, as we wrestle with you in this deep darkness, in this dream-like nightmare. We are sore wounded, broken and changed. Bless us now, as you blest Jacob then. We struggle for a truth – that we will certainly find hard to accept and harder to understand. Even so, reveal yourself to us in this our time of desperate need.
Soon we will leave this place ~ but not our shock, grief or sadness. Help us to move forward in this new, different life we did not choose. Help us to hope a little more with each, small, tepid step into an unknown future with many more disappointments and diversions ahead. Assure us: you go with us.
Guide us in Jesus’ Strong Name we pray. AMEN.
[a prayer based on some petitions by Kate Bowle in “100 Blessings for Imperfect Days” aka: The Lives We Actually Have]
Guidelines for “Open Mic” portion & invitation!
‘STARTERS’ FOR REMARKS BY Friends / Companions:
What is it you will miss most about ___not being with you here any longer?
What did s/he contribute to your life that you value most?
What really hurt her/him ~ and how did s/he handle it / recover? ETC ~~