CONSOLATION

When one door closes, another door opens ....

   These are some comforting prayers and other sayings which are helping me.  I hope they bring some comfort to your troubled heart as well.

Those we love live on in our hearts

In the memories we treasure ...

A Word of Consolation

If a tiny baby could think, it would be afraid of birth. To leave the only world it has

known would seem a kind of death. But immediately after birth the child would

find itself in loving arms, showered with affection and cared for at every moment.

Surely the baby would say, “I was foolish to doubt God’s Plan for me. This is a

beautiful life.”

For the Christian, 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. With Jesus and Mary they await the day when they will

welcome us with job.

“Do not grieve too much, “ they say to us. “We are living and are still with you.”

The Marianist Spiritual Alliance

See! I will not forget you ...

I have carved you

on the palm of

my hand.

Even if thee forget.

I will never

forget my own.

(Isaiah 49:15)

We Will Remember You

At the rising of the sun and it’s

going down ... we will remember you.

At the blowing of the win and the

chill of winter ... we will remember you.

At the opening of the buds and in the

rebirth of spring ... we will remember you.

At the blueness of the skies and in

the warmth of summer ... we will remember you.

At the rustling of the leaves and in

the beauty of autumn ... we will remember you.

At the beginning of the year and when

it ends ... we will remember you.

For as long as we live, because you

were a part of us ... we will remember you.

Destiny plays the music while

we mortals dance.

It would be so nice if life

could be lived without emotional pain;

yet it is a small price to pay Destiny

for the ability

to love and be loved.

Edward F. Wild

August 18, 1985

(Edward wrote this to Martha on the occasion of their 40th wedding anniversary)

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take

My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and

you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy, and My burden light.”

John 11:25-30

Some lives go on forever

in the hearts

and lives they touch

May you remember

the love and the smiles

the tears and the pain,

the joy and the sorrow.

Now may these living reflections

be your strength

and your comfort.

Death is a season

we all must pass through

And just like the flowers,

God awakens us too ....

So why should we grieve

when our loved ones die,

For we’ll meet them again

in a cloudless sky.

Helen Steiner Rice

Comfort For Those Who Mourn

So many people see in death nothing but a cruel separation from loved ones.

Even good and religious people make that sad mistake.

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 to off to

some dark and distant place. They simply continue into eternal life. We do not

seem them because we are still in the darkness of this world. But their spiritual

eyes, filled with the light of heaven, are always watching us as they wait for the

day when we shall share their perfect joy. We are born for heaven and we end

this life of tears to begin our life of endless happiness.

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 times of mourning are tears of homesickness,

tears of longing for our loved ones. But 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 the peace and joy of heaven.

The Marianist Spiritual Alliance

For those who have been faithful, O Lord, life is not ended, but merely changed;

and when this earthly abode dissolves, an eternal dwelling place awaits them in

heaven.

We can’t know why

the lily has so brief

a time to bloom

in the warmth of sunlight’s kiss

upon its face.

Before it folds its fragrance in

and bids the world good-night

to rest its beauty in a gentler place.

But we can know that nothing

that is loved is every lost,

and no one who has ever

touched a heart

can really pass away,

because some beauty lingers on

in each memory of which

they’ve been a part.

Ellen Brenneman

Grant us wings to fly, Lord,

as time goes soaring on ...

Life us above the pain we know

and fill us with Your song.

No eye has seen,

Nor ear heard,

Nor the heart

of man conceived,

what God has prepared

for those

who love Him.

1 Corinthians 2:9

In my Father’s house there are many dwellings .... I shall come back to

take you with me, that where I am you also may be.

John 14:2,3

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