Daily chapel at Concordia Seminary offers rich and varied opportunities to remember whose we are in the ups and downs of life. Last week one service touched all our hearts, “Real Grief, Real Comfort: Miscarriage Memorial Service.” The key text was Psalm 30, including, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. You hid your face; I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy. Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!”
A time was given for worshipers to place flowers on a table in the front of the sanctuary. “May the beauty of the flowers express the beauty of God’s gift of life. By placing the flowers near the altar, we symbolize our faith that entrusts our whole lives into the care of the God who has loved us in Jesus Christ. After the service has concluded, you are welcome to retrieve a flower, and take it with you as a remembrance of this service and the gift of life.”
Almost finally, we prayed a “Litany of Grief and Hope.”
For parents and families whose children have died, and whose grief may seem more than they are able to bear, let us pray to the Lord:
Lord, have mercy
For all those who minister in love to the grieving, that they may have wisdom to listen well and to speak carefully in loving understanding, let us pray to the Lord:
Lord, have mercy
For hearts that need God’s truth, that the promise of Christ’s return and the hope of the resurrection of all flesh may bring a strong foundation and a place to stand, let us pray to the Lord:
Lord, have mercy.
Finally, for these and for all our needs of body and soul, let us pray to the Lord:
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
What was final, in the service and in Christian life, was hearing again God’s benediction.
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