By Lyn Cox

Spirit of Life and Love, known by many names and yet fully known by none, be with us in this hour of grief. Be with us as we reach out to one another in comfort. Be with us as we come to terms with our sadness, anger, and despair. Hold us in the embrace of eternal love, even when we forget our connections with each other and with our deepest selves.

Spark of mystery, illuminate our memories of those who have died. Call to our minds and hearts the love and passion and creativity they wove as their legacy during their too-short lifetimes. Be present with their parents, their partners, their lovers, their friends, their families of all kinds, as they mourn. Bless the caregivers who tend to the survivors and lay the dead to rest. Gather the spirits of the fallen into the brightest center of your heart, and there may they find peace.

River of continuous presence and constant change, we give thanks for this beautiful place to gather with this beautiful company. Help us to find flowing sources of resilience. We give thanks for the traditions of art and music and dance and passion and poetry that have sustained our ancestors in the struggle, and that will sustain us as we move through our grief and into our shared future.

Breath of renewal, bring us together in hope, healing, and action. Lead us to reach out to one another in comfort, in coalition-building, in creativity, in calling for change. May we emerge from this time of lamentation transformed, ready to stand and move and dance together in the service of love and justice. Hold us in our unity, celebrating life in many voices and singing together as one. Remind us to care for ourselves and for one another, today and in the days to come.

We ask all these things in the name of love, and in the spirit of those prophets and teachers who have led us to this moment.

So be it. Blessed be. Amein. Amen.