Funeral Prayers

Funeral prayers are short writings that provide encouragement and strength which many families have used to reflect and remember their loved one. Funeral prayers can also be read aloud in the memorial service and is the perfect additional to any of our templates.

The following is a selection of popular funeral prayers. Use them inside your funeral programs, thank you notes, graduated programs, memorial cards, bookmarks, and/or prayer cards. They are appropriate to use in any of these memorial service keepsake items.

Peace Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying [to ourselves]
that we are born to eternal life.

Student's Prayer

Creator of all things,
true source of Light and Wisdom,
lofty source of all Being,
graciously let a ray of
Your Brilliance penetrate into the darkness
of my understanding and take from me the
double darkness in which I have been born;
sin and ignorance.
Give me a sharp sense of understanding,
a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp
things correctly and fundamentally.
Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations,
and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm.
Point out the beginning, direct the progress,
help in the completion.

Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Prayer for the Departed

God our Father,
Your power brings us to birth,
Your providence guides our lives,
and by Your command we return to dust.

Lord, those who die still live in Your presence,
their lives change but do not end.
I pray in hope for my family,
relatives and friends,
and for all the dead known to You alone.

In company with Christ,
Who died and now lives,
may they rejoice in Your kingdom,
where all our tears are wiped away.
Unite us together again in one family,
to sing Your praise forever and ever.

Amen.