Prayer for the Dead

 

 

Death of our dear ones destroys the radiant joy of our home and plunges us in deep distress. We look unto thee, Ahura Mazda, for the relief of our grief and comfort of our hearts. Time can soften our sorrow, it cannot efface the loving memory of our dead from our minds. We worship their pious memory and it is the one gleam of sunshine in our lives shadowed by sorrow.

Death has freed them from the material bondage. They have shed their frail earthly clay and departed this life to live hereafter in the realm of the spirit. Their earthly work is done and they have laid down the burden that pressed heavily on them. From the din and dust and storm of life's struggle they have gone to the deathless world of peace and rest where light fades not and happiness fails not. Our beloved have died in body to live in spirit a life higher and nobler than our thoughts can measure and minds can conceive. They rest in everlasting peace and joy with thee.

Though lost to us, our dead have not forsaken us. They cannot forget us, as we do not forget them. Though the seven zones divide us and the boundless space part us, they, the spirits, are above and beyond space. They are near us and with us, and see us through our bodily veil. Death has silenced them. They speak not with tongues. They have cast off the vesture of flesh and their souls hold their communion with our souls. They care for us, they feel for us, and they bless us. They long for us and love us, as we long for them and love them. They are ours, as we are theirs. Death has not dissolved our union.

Thou, Ahura Mazda, has called them to thyself. We commend them into thy hands. Have compassion upon their human infirmities. Absolve them from the errors of their mortal life. If they have sinned in thought and word and deed, spare them in thy mercy. Gather them into thy fold. Admit them in the fellowship of thy blessed dead. Let thy light shine upon them. May they rest in thee in the shining, all-happy paradise of the righteous.

 

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This page was last updated on Friday, February 11, 2005.