Uriah Hamilton - Prayer Contemplating Final Farewells

Most Compassionate Heart
Who created love as the mystical essence
That sustains the universe,
Be with us in the lonely hour
Of final farewells,
At the moment
When we must acquiesce
To contemplate
The beautiful eyes
Of a friend or loved one
For which we will never
Gaze into again,
The hands that will no longer
Clasp ours in kind unity,
The loving voice stilled
From which we found
Pleasure and solace,
The brother or sister
Who journeyed with us
Through mutual struggles,
The mother or father
Who conceived our heart
And carried us
Through the most fragile days
Of this earthly sojourn.

Guide us through the sorrow
To understand and accept your purposes,
Grant us the knowledge and ability
To incorporate our departed loved ones
Into our own being,
To remember every smile and friendly greeting,
To recall every wise conversation,
To not lose a single kiss
But to have those treasured experiences
Woven into the very fabric of our existence
So that there is no death but only life,
That our own capacity to love
May only grow and increase aided by those
Who live within us,
That our departed loved ones
May yet touch many lives
Using the kindness of our hands.

May we walk
In the candlelight of hope
That seems dramatically dimmed by immense sadness
But which you never allow to be completely extinguished.

Uriah Hamilton

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