Sorrow makes us all children again –
destroys all differences of intellect.
The wisest know nothing.
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
The praise of those who sleep in the earth,
the pleasant memory of their worth,
the hope to meet when life is past,
shall heal the tortured mind at last.
No Death! John Lee Weldon (Deceased)
Behold!
There is no death, my friend,
that which is called death
is simply a transition
from this life to life beyond this life
where the purity of air
is not fouled
by the gasses of man’s invention
where the wings of love
transport our souls
from meadow to mountain
where the shedding of blood
ceases to be
guns of violence do not exist
they melt away in serenity
soft laughter and smiles
flow from heart to heart
the power of tenderness sings in the blood of all…
Behold!
There is no death!
What is Death?, Harry Scott Holland (1847-1918)
Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name. Speak to me in the easy way which
you always used. Put no difference in your tone. Wear no forced air of
solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes
we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind
Because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
just around the corner.
All is well.
Comfort For Those Who Mourn
(From A Roman Catholic Mass Card)
So many people see in death nothing but a cruel separation from loved ones.
In death there is certainly the very real pain and sorrow of physical separation.
But it is equally true that our loved ones remain with us. They do not just go off
to some dark and distant place. They simply continue into eternal life.
We do not see them because we are still in the darkness of this world.
But their spiritual eyes are always watching us as they wait for the day
when we shall share their perfect joy.
I have often reflected upon this beautiful truth and found it the
greatest and surest comfort in time of mourning. A firm faith in the
real and continual presence of our loved ones has brought the conviction and
consolation that death has not destroyed them, nor carried them away.
Rather it has given them life! A life with power to know fully and to love
perfectly. With this new life and new power our loved ones are always
present to us, knowing and loving us more than ever before.
The tears that dampen our eyes in time of mourning are tears of homesickness,
tears of longing for our loved ones. But it is we who are away from home,
not they! Death has been for them a doorway to an eternal home.
They are still with us, lovingly and tenderly waiting for the day when
we, too, will enter the doorway of our eternal home. It is such a mistake to
see death as separation and nothing more. For us who believe, death is a
preparation for eternal union with those we love, in peace and joy.
A Word of Consolation
(From A Roman Catholic Mass Card)
If a tiny baby could think, it would be afraid of birth.
To leave the only world it had known would seem a kind of death.
But immediately after birth the child finds itself in loving arms,
showered with affection and cared for at every moment.
Passing through death is really a birth into a new and better world.
Those who are left behind should not grieve as if there were no hope.
Life is changed, not taken away.
Our dear ones live on, in a world beautiful beyond anything we can imagine.
There they await the day when they will welcome us with joy.
Author Unknown
I thought of you with love today, but that is nothing new.
I thought about you yesterday and days before that, too.
I think of you in silence; I often speak your name.
All I have are memories and your picture in a frame.
Your memory is my keepsake, With which I’ll never part,
God has you in His keeping. I have you in my heart!
Turn Again to Life
Mary Lee Hall
If I should die and leave you here a while,
be not like others sore undone,
who keep long vigil by the silent dust.
For my sake turn again to life and smile,
nerving thy heart and trembling hand
to do something to comfort other hearts than thine.
Complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine
and I perchance may therein comfort you.
Helen Keller (1880-1968)
When it seems that our sorrow is too great
to be borne, let us think of the great family
of the heavy-hearted into which our grief
has given us entrance, and inevitably, we
will feel about us their arms, their
sympathy, their understanding.
St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
Lord, make me an instrument
of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that
I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
The world breaks everyone
and afterward
many are strong in the broken places.
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When I must leave you for a little while,
please do not grieve and shed wild tears
and hug your sorrow to you through the
years. But start out bravely with a gallant
smile; and for my sake and in my name,
live on and do all things the same.
Feed not your loneliness on empty days, but fill each
waking hour in useful ways. Reach out your hand in comfort
and in cheer. And I in turn will comfort you and hold you near.
And never, never be afraid to die. For I am waiting for
you in the sky.
Miss Me - But Let Me Go
When I come to the end of the road
and the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom filled room
why cry for a soul set free?
Miss me a little - but not too long
and not with your head bowed low
remember the love that we once shared
Miss Me - But Let Me Go.
For this is a journey that we all must take
and each must go alone
it's all a part of the Master's plan
a step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick of heart
go to the friends we know
and bury your sorrows in doing good deeds
Miss Me - But Let Me Go
To everything there is a season,
a time to every purpose under heaven:
a time to be born, and
a time to die;
a time to plant, and
a time to pluck
what is planted;
a time to kill, and
a time to heal;
a time to break down, and
a time to build up;
a time to weep, and
a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and
a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and
a time to gather stones;
a time to embrace, and
a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain, and
a time to lose;
a time to keep, and
a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and
a time to sow;
a time to keep silence, and
a time to speak;
A time to love, and
a time to hate;
a time of war; and
a time of peace.
Author, Robert Fulghum (1937- Present)
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -
myth is more potent than history -
dreams are more powerful than facts -
hope always triumphs over experience -
laughter is the cure for grief -
love is stronger than death.
Death, Be Not Proud, Author, John Donne (1573-1631)
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death; nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow;
And soonest our best men with thee do go -
Rest of their bones, and souls' delivery!
Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke. Why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die.
Plato (429-347BC)
The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.
William Shakespeare (1564-1601)
I have Immortal longings in me.
John Keats (1795-1821)
I long to believe in immortality. . . .
If I am destined to be happy with you here-
how short is the longest life.
I wish to believe in immortality-
I wish to live with you forever.
Bede Jarrett, OP (1916 -1934)
We seem to give them back to thee, O God,
who gavest them to us.
Yet as thou didst not lose them in the giving,
so we do not lose them by their return.
Not as the world giveth, givest thou, O lover of souls.
What thou givest, thou takest not away,
for what is thine is also ours if we are thine.
'And life is eternal and love is immortal, and death is only an horizon,
and an horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.'
Lift us up strong Son of God,
that we may see much further,
cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly,
draw us closer to thyself that we may know ourselves
to be nearer to our loved ones who are now with thee.
And while thou dost prepare a place for us,
prepare us also for that happy place,
that where thou art we may also be forever more.
Jewish Proverb
From happiness to suffering is a step;
from suffering to happiness is an eternity.
Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711)
Let those who thoughtfully consider the brevity of life,
remember the length of eternity.
Teach me to live that I may dread
the grave as little as my bed.
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
Life's a voyage that's homeward bound.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
The heart that has truly loved never forgets,
but as truly loves on to the close.
You may break; you may shatter the vase, if you will,
but the scent of the roses will hang 'round it still.
Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.
Saint Agnes of Montepulciano (1268-1317)
Do not grieve over much at my departure:
I shall not lose site of you.
You will find that I have not abandoned you
and you will possess me forever.
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
Is death the last sleep?
No, it is the final awakening.
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William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
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Ode
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
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What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now forever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind
Love
1 Corinthians 13:4 - 13
Author, Saint Paul
Love suffers long and is kind.
Love does not envy.
Love does not parade itself,
is not puffed up,
does not behave rudely,
does not seek its own,
is not provoked,
thinks no evil,
does not rejoice in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth,
bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never fails.
..........................
And now abide
faith, hope, love, these three
but the greatest of these is love.
And Death Shall Have No Dominion
Welsh Poet Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
with the man in the wind and the west moon;
when their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
they shall have stars at elbow and foot;
though they go mad they shall be sane,
though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
though lovers be lost love shall not;
and death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
they lying long shall not die windily;
twisting on racks when sinews give way,
strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
faith in their hands shall snap in two,
find the unicorn evils run them through;
split all ends up they shan't crack;
and death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
or waves break loud on the seashores;
where blew a flower may a flower no more
lift its head to the blows of the rain;
though they be mad and dead as nails,
heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
and death shall have no dominion.
