Readings on the Day of Burial
Reading:
2 Machabees xii: 43-46
(From the Second Mass of All Souls Day, not the Burial Mass
Included here because it often articulates with our sermons.)
A
reading from the second book of Machabees:
In
those days, the most valiant man Judas, making a gathering, sent twelve
thousand drachmas of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the
sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection
(for if he had not hoped that they that were slain would rise again, it would
have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead); and because he
considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace
laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and a wholesome thought to pray
for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins.
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians iv: 13-18
A
reading from the epistle of blessed Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians.
Brethren:
We will not have you ignorant concerning them that are asleep that you be not
sorrowful, even as others who have no hope; for if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so those who have slept through Jesus, will God
bring with Him. For this we say unto you in the word of the Lord, that
we who are alive, who remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not go before
those who have slept. For the Lord Himself shall come down from heaven,
with commandment, and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of
God; and the dead who are in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are
alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to
meet Christ, into the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words.
Gospel:
John xi: 21-27
+
The
continuation of the Holy Gospel
according to John:
At that time, Martha said to Jesus, “Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother would not have died. But, now also I know that whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it to Thee.” Jesus said to her, “Thy brother shall rise again." Martha said to him, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, although he be dead, shall live; and everyone that liveth and believeth in Me, shall not die forever. Believest thou this?” And she said to Him, “Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God, who art come into this world.”
