I wrote these a few years ago.
The first is for all of those we’ve lost …
Prayer for the Faithful Departed
By Kate O’Hare
“My God, my God,
Why have You forsaken Me?”
From the depths of Your Passion, sweet Christ,
You cried unto the Father.
From the depths of our grief
We cry unto You.
With wounded hearts,
Empty arms,
We cry unto You.
For the souls of our beloved departed,
Purifying in Purgatory,
Especially those whose wounds most need Your healing mercy,
We cry unto You.
For the faithful souls in Heaven,
Who gaze upon Your face,
But whose faces are beyond our sight,
We cry unto You.
For the innocent who never drew breath,
We cry unto You.
For those unrecorded and unremembered
Except in Your Sacred Heart,
We cry unto You.
For those who did not look to You in life,
Who lived the life of the world
With no thought of the life to come,
We cry unto You.
Oh, Blessed Lord, the Alpha and the Omega,
The source and destination of our souls,
We beg your grace for the living and the dead,
For the sake of the world,
We cry unto You.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
Kyrie, eleison,
Christe, eleison,
Kyrie eleison.
Amen.
And the second is for those we’ve lost in Hollywood …
Prayer for Departed Artists
By Kate O’Hare
Lord of all creation,
Most loving and just God,
You are the source of everything good, true and beautiful.
When we put forward our words, our music, our images, our voices, and our movement in service of Art,
All has its birth in You.
As the Holy Spirit descends to inspire the faithful artists,
So Sister Death gathers them back into the welcoming arms of the Father.
With sorrow and hope, we bid farewell to points of light now gone out,
Celebrating the beauty they produced in life,
Sending prayers aloft to You for their souls and the grief of their loved ones.
We also mourn for ourselves, facing a future left a bit less bright.
But always, Christ our King,
We know You will set new lights ablaze,
And help us bank the creative fires in our own hearts,
To better praise You in Your Glory,
Through your Mercy and boundless Love.
With all those the Holy Spirit inspires, we ask intercession from
Our Blessed Virgin Mary, the embodiment of Christian holiness,
Ora pro nobis!
St. Clare, who watches over television,
Ora pro nobis!
St. Veronica, who watches over photographers and filmmakers,
Ora pro nobis!
St. Cecilia, who watches over musicians,
Ora pro nobis!
St. Vitus, who watches over dancers,
Ora pro nobis!
St. Genesius, who watches over actors,
Ora pro nobis!
St. Francis de Sales, who watches over writers,
Ora pro nobis!
St. Luke, who watches over visual artists,
Ora pro nobis!
And St. Isidore, who watches over the Web that binds us together,
Ora pro nobis!
Images: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons, Kate O’Hare
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