Funeral Prayer Card Verses

Bible verses (20)

King James Version, which is what most printed cards use and what most people of a certain age hear in their heads. If your church prefers another translation, ask the office for the wording rather than guessing.

• “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

  Psalm 23:1, KJV

  The shortest usable card back there is. Often set with verses 4 and 6.

• “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

  Psalm 23:4, KJV

• “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

  Psalm 23:6, KJV

• “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

  Psalm 34:18, KJV

• “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

  Psalm 46:1, KJV

• “Be still, and know that I am God.”

  Psalm 46:10, KJV

  Eight words. Works when the photograph is doing the talking.

• “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

  Psalm 116:15, KJV

• “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”

  Psalm 121:1-2, KJV

• “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”

  Psalm 147:3, KJV

• “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

  Ecclesiastes 3:1, KJV

• “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.”

  Isaiah 25:8, KJV

• “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary.”

  Isaiah 40:31, KJV

• “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

  Matthew 5:4, KJV

• “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

  Matthew 11:28, KJV

• “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

  Matthew 25:21, KJV

  Chosen often for someone who worked hard and did not talk about it.

• “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

  John 11:25, KJV

• “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

  John 14:2, KJV

• “Neither death, nor life, … nor things present, nor things to come, … shall be able to separate us from the love of God.”

  From Romans 8:38-39, KJV

  Shortened: the dots mark the words left out.

• “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

  2 Timothy 4:7, KJV

• “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.”

  Revelation 21:4, KJV

Psalm 23 accounts for more prayer cards than every other passage combined. If you want the full text, the different translations, and how to break it across a small panel, it has its own page: the 23rd Psalm for a funeral. For longer passages meant to be read aloud rather than printed, see Bible verses for funeral programs.

Catholic prayers (10)

On a Catholic card the prayer usually sits on the back, with a holy image on the front and the photograph moved inside or onto the back above the text. All of these are traditional and freely printable.

• “Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.”

  The Eternal Rest prayer

  The default Catholic card back. Change her to him as needed.

• “May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your coming and lead you into the holy city of Jerusalem.”

  In Paradisum

  Sung as the body is taken from the church. Familiar to anyone who has been to a funeral Mass.

• “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

  From the Hail Mary

• “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.”

  From the Memorare

• “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith.”

  The Peace Prayer, attributed to St. Francis

  First printed anonymously in 1912. Good for someone who volunteered.

• “May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”

  Traditional

• “We fly to thy protection, O holy Mother of God. Despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers.”

  Sub Tuum Praesidium

• “Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”

  From the Salve Regina

• “St. Joseph, patron of a happy death, pray for us.”

  Traditional

  A single line, often set beneath a holy image of St. Joseph.

• “Jesus, I trust in you.”

  Divine Mercy devotion

  Five words, and enough. Usually paired with the Divine Mercy image.

Which saint suits which person, the longer prayers in full, and the convention for the wording above the name are covered on Catholic funeral prayer cards.

Lines from poems (12)

These are excerpts chosen because they stand alone. A poem that needs its first three stanzas to make sense will not survive being cut down to card size, so it is better to read that one at the service and put something self-contained on the card.

• “Death is nothing at all. … I have only slipped away into the next room. … Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.”

  Henry Scott Holland, from a sermon of 1910

  His own words, shortened where the dots are. It was a sermon, not a poem, which is why you see it broken into lines, and reworded, differently everywhere.

• “Remember me when I am gone away, gone far away into the silent land.”

  Christina Rossetti, Remember

• “When I am dead, my dearest, sing no sad songs for me; plant thou no roses at my head, nor shady cypress tree.”

  Christina Rossetti, Song

• “Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, when I put out to sea.”

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Crossing the Bar

• “I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crost the bar.”

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Crossing the Bar

  The closing couplet on its own. Traditional for someone who worked on the water.

• “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.”

  Emily Dickinson

• “Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me; the carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality.”

  Emily Dickinson

• “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love. If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.”

  Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

  Suits a gardener, a farmer, or anyone who was outside more than in.

• “Home is the sailor, home from sea, and the hunter home from the hill.”

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Requiem

• “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, nor the furious winter’s rages; thou thy worldly task hast done, home art gone, and ta’en thy wages.”

  William Shakespeare, Cymbeline

• “One short sleep past, we wake eternally, and death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”

  John Donne, Death Be Not Proud

• “There is no Death! What seems so is transition.”

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Resignation

More poems, including the longer ones written to be read aloud, are on funeral poems. If you are choosing a reading and a card verse at the same time, it is worth using two different pieces rather than the same one twice.

Blessings, hymns and traditional lines (9)

Hymn lines carry more than their words do. Half the room will hear the tune when they read them, which is exactly the point.

• “May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face.”

  Traditional Irish blessing

• “And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.”

  Traditional Irish blessing

  The closing line alone, which fits a small card better than the whole thing.

• “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.”

  Traditional Irish headstone verse

• “May the blessing of light be on you, light without and light within.”

  Traditional Irish blessing

• “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

  John Newton, 1779

• “Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes; shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies.”

  Henry Francis Lyte, Abide with Me, 1847

• “Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.”

  Horatio Spafford, 1873

• “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.”

  Luke 2:29, KJV, the Nunc Dimittis

• “May her memory be a blessing.”

  Traditional Jewish

  Zichrona livracha. Change to his memory for a man.

If a hymn is being sung at the service, printing one line of it on the card ties the two together at no cost. The forty hymns families actually choose, with first lines, are on funeral hymns.

Non-religious verses and your own words (9)

The last four in this list are examples of what a family writing its own card back sounds like. They are invented, and they are here to show the register rather than to be copied word for word. Two plain sentences about a real person beat a borrowed line every time.

• “Loved beyond words. Missed beyond measure.”

  Traditional

  Six words on the back of a card, and it is enough.

• “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”

  Thomas Campbell, Hallowed Ground, 1825

• “Say not in grief that she is no more, but live in thankfulness that she was.”

  Hebrew proverb

• “Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost.”

  Walt Whitman, Continuities

• “He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much.”

  Bessie Anderson Stanley, 1905

  Often misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, and sometimes to Robert Louis Stevenson. She won a magazine contest with it.

• “Ninety-one years, four children, one garden, and a door that was never locked.”

  Written by the family

• “Thank you for loving her. She knew.”

  Written by the family

  Reads as a note from the family rather than a quotation, which is why it lands.

• “She never once let anybody leave her house hungry.”

  Written by the family

• “Until we are all together again. Save us a seat.”

  Written by the family

A card with no verse at all is a legitimate choice. Name, two dates, one photograph, and white space. If the whole service is non-religious, the wording conventions for the rest of the package are on non-religious funeral program.

Making the verse fit the card

The back of a standard card has room for a heading, the name, the two dates, and then the text. Here is what that looks like fully set, with a verse of the right length.

Break the lines yourself

Do not let the software wrap the text. Break each line where a person would pause when reading it out loud, and center the block. A verse broken at natural phrases looks like poetry; the same verse wrapped by a text box looks like a paragraph that ran out of room.

Cut rather than shrink

If the passage runs long, cut whole verses rather than words from the middle of one, and change the reference to say which verses you kept: Psalm 23:1, 4, 6, not Psalm 23. If you must cut inside a verse, mark the gap with three dots. Everybody notices type set at 7 point. On a 2.5 by 4.25 card, keep the verse at 9 or 10 point and the attribution at 7 or 8. Exact capacities for every card size are on prayer card size.

Attribution, briefly

One line, smaller type, under the verse. The book and chapter for scripture. The poet’s name for a poem, and the poem’s title only if there is room. The word Traditional for a blessing. Nothing at all if the family wrote it, though some families sign it with the surname, which reads warmly.

You are allowed to do less than you think

There is no obligation to have a verse. There is no obligation to have a card. If choosing between sixty options is one decision too many this week, take Psalm 23, or take the five-word line at the top of the non-religious list, and be finished with it. A plain card with an honest sentence on it is kept for decades. A crowded one gets put in a drawer.

Modern poems and song lyrics

Several of the most-requested card texts were written in the last century and are still under copyright. Printing two hundred copies of a copyrighted poem is technically a reproduction. In practice no family has ever been troubled over a funeral card, and print shops produce them daily. It is still worth knowing which ones they are.

The frequently requested modern pieces include Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye, The Dash by Linda Ellis, and She Is Gone by David Harkins, along with several widely circulated anonymous verses such as Miss Me But Let Me Go and God Saw You Getting Tired, whose authorship is genuinely unknown. Your funeral director will have printed all of them.

Two straightforward alternatives. Print the title and the author on the card, in place of the text, and have the poem read aloud at the service. Or use a public domain piece from the lists above on the card, and save the modern poem for the order of service, where it is spoken rather than reproduced. Churches have handled it this way for years.

The same applies to song lyrics, which are more tightly protected than poetry. If a particular song mattered to the person, name the song and the artist on the card. Everyone who reads it will hear the rest.

Once the words are chosen, the remaining decisions are the photograph and the printing. Reposa sets the verse you pick onto the card at the right size, with the line breaks kept as you wrote them, matched to your funeral program and exported as a print-ready PDF. If you are printing them yourself, the practical side is on how to make funeral prayer cards.