A prayer for personal devotions or public worship. This post was originally published on Rev Gal Blog Pals dot com.

A Litany for the Feast of All Saints

May the Great Creator help us to live in a saintly manner and remind us that nothing– not even death– can separate of from God’s love.

O God of All Creation,

You are the Creator of all that is seen and unseen. You are our refuge and our strength. We come to you this day because we are seeking comfort in the midst of our grief. Death is part of the human experience. We have all lost someone we cared about.

Response: To be human is to die a little bit every day. Tomorrow is promised to no one, and every sunset is a funeral.

Leader: But we have a resurrection hope. We know that death is not the end and we rejoice that the grave has lost it’s sting.

Response: When we have faith in you, every sunrise is an Easter morning. Each day we can taste the sweetness of abundant life.

Leader: God, help us to feel the comforting presence of the great cloud of witnesses. Remind us that nothing—not even death itself—can separate us from your love.

We lift up the names of all of those who are no longer physically with us: (list names aloud here or silently raise them in prayer).

Response: We miss them. The holidays are painful without them here. There are empty seats at the table and we long to feel close to them and to you, O God.

Leader: Grant us comfort. Give us peace. Have mercy on all those who have gone home to be with you. Welcome them home into your house where there are many rooms.

Response: And help us, O God, because there are many days when we don’t feel like Saints. We confess that there are many times when we don’t have the strength to act “saintly.”

Leader: Yet we take comfort in the knowledge that, through the power of your love, all things are possible. Please give us the strength to do your work here on earth and to spread your love until it is time for us to return home to be with you.

All: We yearn for the day when you will come once more to make a new creation. Help us to live our lives in such a manner that, when our time on earth is done, we may be welcomed into your presence with those precious words, “Well done, Good and Faithful Servant, welcome home.”

Amen.

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About the author: Rev. Rebecca L. Holland, M.Div. OSL is an ordained elder serving in the Susquehanna Conference of the UMC. She is proud of her intersectional identity as a visually-impaired Filipino-American clergy woman. She is the author of Through My Good Eye: A Memoir in Verse, The United Methodist Church and Disability, and Hope for the Broken: Using Writing to Find God’s Grace. She blogs about faith, books, and disability awareness at BeckieWrites.com.

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