A JEWISH MEMORIAL PRAYER FOR ALL SOULS’ DAY

All Souls’ Day, November 2, (also known as the Day of the Dead in the South-West and Mexico) commemorates all the faithful departed. My first church in London was called All Souls Church. This year it is appropriate to remember the eleven victims of the massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Here is a Jewish Memorial Prayer.

O Lord our God, through whose love we have our being and in whose presence is eternal life, in this solemn hour we remember before you, all those whose lives in this world claim our love and affection, admiration, respect and gratitude, and whom you have now taken to eternity.

We recall the great of humanity who in signal measure have pointed the way as leaders of nations. We think of the heroes and martyrs, especially of the House of Israel but also of all the families of the earth, the witnesses to your holy spirit in the world. May their names shine as the stars in heaven forever and forever.

Oh our merciful Father, we recall before you, each one of us, those who are nearest and dearest to us. In the holy quiet of the Sanctuary, the names and qualities of them all are counted over with tender longing. Each capacity, each merit and each grace shines before us now as a crown to a treasured name and as an incentive to rich and noble living.

May the voice of reason speak to our troubled spirits of the essential place of death in the scheme of life. We could know no life of meaning and worth except through the pilgrimage of struggle which is the earthly lot of us all. May the light of faith pierce the shadows that enfold us, and still the storm of our rebellion. May we be a little more content when our questions are not answered. May we be wise enough to sense the over-mastering mystery which no human mind can penetrate. In God’s holy presence we would subdue arrogance, and resign ourselves to a higher will. In the dwelling place of everlasting love, may we seek our rest – and our comfort in the faith that all souls, theirs and ours, are bound up in the bundle of life.

“They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 9:4,5).