We seem to give him back to you, dear God, who gave him to us. Yet as you did not lose him in giving, so we have not lost him by his returning. Not as the world gives, do you give, O Lover of Souls! What you give, you do not take away. For what is yours is ours always, if we are yours. Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing but 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 nearer to our beloved who are with you. And while you prepare a place for us, prepare us for that happy place, that where they are, and you are, we too may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This prayer is sometimes called “the horizon prayer.” It is one of my favorite “additional prayers” for the burial liturgy. Yesterday, with tears and deep love, sacred hope, and crushing sorrow, I prayed this at my son’s committal.
Interrupting the Silence 
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