Memorial Prayer for Margaret Smith
October 29, 1001

God of all,
It's a solemn time for us when we come face to face with life and death. It's more than we can take in. That breath can enter dust and living being be formed. That something that vulnerable is sustained as a tiny part of an enormous universe. That something as precious to us as a life of a loved one is so vulnerable. That something as certain as death hovers over what is so precious to us. What we absolutely cannot take in is what it is like not to be.

Dear God, as we face the mystery of life and death we pray for a Word that is sound and true. Address our state in all seriousness. Don't cheer us with wishful thinking. Speak to us of eternal things.

What brought us to face the mystery of life and death was the death of Margaret Smith. It is the life and death of Margaret Smith that we are about. We have gathered to mark her passing and we pray that ours will be a fit memorial. It's not fair what she had to put up with these last long years. But we have been greatly moved by her courage in the face of adversity all that time.

Let not these last years diminish the years of full and giving life. We remember before you those who will miss her most. Liberate in them such rich remembering that their mourning will be comforted. Sustain Don through the shock of emptiness at the sudden cutting off of his years of care-giving.

While you are speaking to us of eternal things address the sense of being diminished that assails all of us as we age.

Hear our crys.
Receive Margaret into your rest and all of us into a lively communion of saints through J esus Christ our Lord.
Amen.