Remembering those we love in the Eucharist (Bread for the journey 4)

 

Today we attended our first Sunday mass of the year.  A special intention was included by the priest for my late father. Remembering and praying for the dead is an integral part of the mass including the Eucharistic prayers (“Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection”). Although I am no expert or authority on this matter it is my understanding that the practice of praying for the dead goes back to very early Christian times both in the East and in the West. While important theological differences arise among Christian denominations today we can, all, agree that God’s love is not limited by death; that the  Church is one communion across heaven and earth and that we can entrust the departed to God’s mercy not to so much as to “earn” salvation for them as to recall, in the eucharist, the great sacrifice of our Lord for everyone who died in the faith and fear of God (“We bless thy holy Name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear” is found in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer).