Day 5: Grieving Our Losses & Ancestral Pilgrimage

OPENING PRAYER
We greet this morning remembering all those we have lost, allowing grief to become a witness to the ways we have loved lavishly and freely. We make space for the deep cries of the heart, our fierce and tender lament knowing God holds these with us, gathering our tears in a sacred vial.

OPENING SONG: Weep with Me
Weep with me for darkness I have been.
Weep with me for darkness I have seen.
Weep with me for all that I have known,
For when the heart’s divided it wanders far from home.

A mhuire na ngrás
A mhaithir Mhic Dé
Go gloise tú sa dorchadas mé.

(Hail Mary, Full of Grace.
Hail, Mother of God.
Hear me in the Darkness.)

A mhuire na ngrás
A mhaithir Mhic Dé
Go sabhála tú me
Go sabhála tú mé.
(Hail Mary, Full of Grace,
Hail, Mother of God.
Heal Me)

Hold me in your arms
Hold me in your arms
Hold me

See me in your eyes
See me in your eyes
See me.

Know me in your heart
Know me in your heart
Know me.

For all can be,
Earth, sky and sea.

Turas numinous don chroí.

(Sacred journey of the heart.)

FIRST READING: Henri Nouwen
As we grow older, we have more and more people to remember, people who have died before us. It is very important to remember those who have loved us and those we have loved. Remembering them means letting their spirits inspire us in our daily lives. They can become part of our spiritual communities and gently help us as we make decisions on our journeys. Parents, spouses, children, and friends can become true spiritual companions after they have died. Sometimes they can become even more intimate to us after death than when they were with us in life. Remembering the dead is choosing their ongoing companionship.

SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Hope, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)

PSALM 13: How Long
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long, how long, O Lord?
Will you hide your face away from me
How long, how long, O Lord?
How long must I bear the anguish of my soul?
How long, how long, O Lord?
And have sorrow in my heart through all of my days?
How long, how long, O Lord?
Consider and answer, O Lord my God
How long, how long, O Lord?
Give light to my eyes, or I’ll sleep as in death
How long, how long, O Lord?
But I trust in your love, and my heart shall one day rejoice
How long, how long, O Lord?
I will sing to the Lord, who is gracious and loving
How long, how long, O Lord?

SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.

SECOND READING: Jeremiah 31:15
A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.

SILENT CONTEMPLATION

PRAYERS OF CONCERN
Comforting One, grief often feels too heavy a burden to shoulder alone. Be our Simon of Cyrene and help us bear the heavy crosses of our losses. We know we are not alone in our mourning, but sometimes it feels like we are. You sent your Spirit like a dove to Jesus at his baptism. It feels as though we’ve been baptized in a river of our tears. Please send your Spirit of Love and Comfort to console us, and even in our pain we will remember to thank you.

Sung Response O God of Love, hold us in our mourning.

One Who Hears, there are days that we, too, raise our voices in bitter lamentation, like Rachel in Ramah, weeping for our lost loved ones, refusing to be consoled, because they are no more. In these times, when no promise of a resurrection or far-off heaven brings relief, hear our cries. Listen to our keening and moaning. Steady us as we thrash in the endless nights, then cradle us, each one, as you would a very small child, rocking us tenderly until we fall asleep.

Sung Response O God of Love, hold us in our mourning.
Breath of Spirit, sometimes it is enough just to breathe. Help us to do this right now, and as often as needed. Help us to pause. Take a few moments to sit with you, with all our pain. Nothing more to do than breathe. Breathe in. Breathe out. Nothing we must feel. Or not feel. Just be. With You. Breathing in. And out.

Sung Response O God of Love, hold us in our mourning.

Please add the prayers you are longing to express.

Sung Response O God of Love, hold us in our mourning.

CLOSING SONG: We Remember Them
We remember them in the rising moon.
We remember them in the mourning dove.
When the waters rush upon the shore
We remember them singing ever more.

And they too shall live
As they are woven into us.

I remember you singing ever more.

CLOSING BLESSING
Blessing for Grief
This blessing sits with you in the ache
and dark cave of loss.
Let your voice ring out into the hollow space
of stone and bone,
a wail, a cry, a lament.
Call on wise ones to surround you,
Michael the Archangel,
Mary, Our Lady of Sorrow,
Sister Death,
and any other ancient ones
whose presence would be steadying.
You do not have to be consoled,
you do not have to hold back the river of tears
you do not have to hold it all together.
Rest your spine back against the soft rock
and feel yourself held by Earth,
by the saints and ancestors
who knew their own landscape of loss.
Give yourself over to this holy time of grief
a witness to the expanse of your love

And when the heaviness is too much to bear
ask the mountains and the oceans
to carry the weight in their enormous arms.
Notice all the places you still hold back
and soften, surrender, release.
Hear Jesus’s cry of abandonment from the cross
and know this mourning as part of your humanity.
Let this blessing carry you as well,
to the far distant shores of your longing.

SUNG AMEN