DEAD
AND FORGOTTEN
Dear
God,
Winds
rustle the leaves in old cemeteries
where the very dearly beloved lie now alone,
no longer visited by relatives or friends,
who are themselves now long departed
and also resting in the quiet earth.
Each
year more souls are added to these ranks of the
forgotten and unmentioned in prayer.
Let
me offer to You a remembrance for all those who
are no longer mourned by any descendants or acquaintances
still alive.
Though
their bodies are "moldering in the ground,"
I pray that their souls be cleansed of all sins
and taken finally into Your bosom
in heaven above.
Forgive,
please, their transgressions,
their lapses, their moral failures, public, secret
and now long forgotten here on earth,
but recorded still in the records books
of heaven.
Wash
away their sins now, Lord, if my pleas have any
efficacy. Forgive their stumblings from the straight
paths, their deceptions, their unkindnesses and
their omissions.
Erase their names, please from Saint Peter's Book
of Transgressions, and write them now
with glittering stars in the glowing
Scrolls of Final Salvation.
Let
their souls rise blazingly bright once more, and
please receive them Jesus
into shining and eternal glory with You!
All
this I pray to You My Good Redeemer,
in hope and confidence and burning
ardent love.
Amen
