Verse: ‘…the Lord will be your everlasting light’, (Isaiah 60:19).
A prayer that I have rapidly become familiar with due to working in a Roman Catholic school is the Eternal Rest. After Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s death there was a heavy focus on her life and praying for her peaceful rest, in class as well as in Mass. It is a wonderfully simple prayer, yet one that contains much symbolism and meaning. Easy to remember, and easy to pray, for many reciting it brings both comfort and peace. During October, and more commonly November, countless Christians and members of other religious traditions will be praying in earnest for the dearly departed souls of our dead.
Whether one believes in any specific theological assumptions about the afterlife, or instead lives in hope that perhaps one may well exist, praying for our loved ones – and strangers too as many religions advocate doing – can be a cathartic experience and can help us feel like we are helping them somehow. This can help lessen grief and help us to manage, to varying degrees, the pain that we are in.
The words of the prayer in its common form are as follows:
Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord,
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
Amen.
In this prayer are two very important theological concepts. The first is the concept of eternal rest in the Lord and the second is the perpetual light of the Lord. It is fairly common to pray for the peaceful rest of those who are departed and the concept of rest is frequent in the Bible; in the Book of Psalms there are even a collection known as Psalms of Rest. Within the psalms are also references to the Lord being our everlasting light, or, in the light of this prayer, our perpetual light. In Isaiah 60:19, the full verse of the shortened one at the start of the post, the importance of God’s light over any other source is emphasised, ‘The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory’.