It can be difficult to find suitable readings for funerals. Here are some that I have found and like.
Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I and you are you: whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by my old familiar name. Speak to me in the easy way which you you always used. Put no difference into your tone; wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without a ghost of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it was; there is absolute unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligable accident? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near just around the corner. All is well. Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918) Canon of St Paul's Cathedral.
Turn Again to Life
If I should die and leave you here awhile,
Be not like others, sore undone, who keep
Long vigils by the silent dust, and weep.
For my sake, turn again to life and smile,
Nerving thy heart and trembling hand to do
Something to comfort other hearts than thine.
Complete those dear,, unfinished tasks of mine
And I, perchance, may therein comfort you.
Mary Lee Hall
For Katrina's Sun Dial
Time is too slow for those who wait
Too swift for those who fear
Too long for those who grieve
To short for those who rejoice
But for those who love, time is eternity.
Henry Van Dyke
For more ideas http://www.muchloved.com/gateway/bereavement-poems-and-funeral-readings.htm
