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The Best 10 Religious Funeral Poems
This page highlights Religious Funeral Poems, a compilation of verses deeply rooted in spiritual perspectives on life, death, and the hereafter. These poems offer words of comfort, hope, and reassurance, drawing upon faith's profound resources in times of loss. Suitable for those selected to read at a funeral, memorial, or eulogy, the poems listed here provide a serene tribute, exploring the spiritual dimensions of grief and the promise of eternal life.
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1) Prayer Of St. Francis Of Assisi
Author: St. Francis of Assisi
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where this is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
The poem is based on the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, a religious figure, making it a suitable choice for religious funerals.
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2) Epitaph On My Own Friend
Author: Robert Burns
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
An honest man here lies at rest,
As e’er God with His image blest:
The friend of man, the friend of truth;
The friend of age, and guide of youth:
Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d,
Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:
If there’s another world, he lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the best of this.
The poem is based on the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, a religious figure, making it a suitable choice for religious funerals.
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3) God Saw You Getting Tired
Author: Rhonda Braswell
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
God saw you getting tired
And a cure was not to be
So He put His arms around you
And whispered ‘Come with Me.’
With tearful eyes
We watched you suffer
And saw you fade away,
Although we loved you dearly
We could not make you stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
Hard working hands at rest,
God broke our hearts to prove
He only takes the best.
It’s lonesome here without you,
We miss you more each day,
Life doesn’t seem the same
Since you’ve gone away.
When days are sad and lonely
And everything goes wrong,
We seem to hear you whisper
‘Cheer up and carry on.’
Each time we see your picture,
You seem to smile and say
‘Don’t cry, I’m in God’s keeping
We’ll meet again someday.’
You never said ‘I’m leaving’,
You never said goodbye,
You were gone before we knew it,
And only God knew why.
A million times we needed you,
A million times we cried,
If love alone could have saved you,
You never would have died.
In life we loved you dearly,
In death we love you still ,
In our hearts you hold a place,
That no one could ever fill.
It broke our hearts to lose you,
But you didn’t go alone,
For part of us went with you,
The day God took you home.
The poem strongly features religious themes, such as God taking the deceased into His care and the promise of meeting again someday.
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4) Turn Again To Life
Author: Mary Lee Hall
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
If I should die and leave you here a while,
Be not like others sore undone,
Who keep long vigil by the silent dust.
For my sake turn again to life and smile,
Nerving thy heart and trembling hand to do
Something to comfort other hearts than thine.
Complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine
And I perchance may therein comfort you.
The poem can be read at a religious funeral service to provide comfort and inspiration to mourners.
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5) If I Should Never See The Moon Again
Author: Major Malcolm Boyle
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
If I should never see the moon again
Rising red gold across the harvest field,
Or feel the stinging of soft April rain
As the brown earth her hidden treasures yield.
If I should never hear the thrushes wake
Long before the sunrise in the glittering dawn,
Or watch the huge Atlantic rollers break
Against the rugged cliffs in baffling scorn.
If I have said goodbye to stream and wood
To the wide ocean and green clad hill,
I know that he who made this world good
Has somewhere made a heaven better still.
This I bear witness with my last breath
Knowing the love of God
I fear not death.
The poem references the love of God and the belief in a better heaven, making it suitable for a religious funeral.
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6) In Memory
Author: Joyce Kilmer
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
Serene and beautiful and very wise,
Most erudite in curious Grecian lore,
You lay and read your learned books, and bore
A weight of unshed tears and silent sighs.
The song within your heart could never rise
Until love bade it spread its wings and soar.
Nor could you look on Beauty's face before
A poet's burning mouth had touched your eyes.
Love is made out of ecstasy and wonder;
Love is a poignant and accustomed pain.
It is a burst of Heaven-shaking thunder;
It is a linnet's fluting after rain.
Love's voice is through your song; above and under
And in each note to echo and remain.
Because Mankind is glad and brave and young,
Full of gay flames that white and scarlet glow,
All joys and passions that Mankind may know
By you were nobly felt and nobly sung.
Because Mankind's heart every day is wrung
By Fate's wild hands that twist and tear it so,
Therefore you echoed Man's undying woe,
A harp Aeolian on Life's branches hung.
So did the ghosts of toiling children hover
About the piteous portals of your mind;
Your eyes, that looked on glory, could discover
The angry scar to which the world was blind:
And it was grief that made Mankind your lover,
And it was grief that made you love Mankind.
Before Christ left the Citadel of Light,
To tread the dreadful way of human birth,
His shadow sometimes fell upon the earth
And those who saw it wept with joy and fright.
“Thou art Apollo, than the sun more bright!”
They cried. “Our music is of little worth,
But thrill our blood with thy creative mirth
Thou god of song, thou lord of lyric might!”
O singing pilgrim! who could love and follow
Your lover Christ, through even love's despair,
You knew within the cypress-darkened hollow
The feet that on the mountain are so fair.
For it was Christ that was your own Apollo,
And thorns were in the laurel on your hair.
The poem includes references to the "Rose of Sharon" and "His Sacred Heart," which are religious symbols, making it suitable for religious funerals
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7) Footprints On The Sands Of Time
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! –
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, — act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
The poem references God, indicating a connection to faith, which makes it suitable for a religious funeral.
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8) The Best And Most Beautiful Things In The World
Author: Helen Keller
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
The best and most beautiful
Things in the world cannot
Be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.
The idea that the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched but must be felt with the heart aligns with many religious beliefs about the power of faith and the importance of intangible qualities such as love and compassion.
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9) No Coward Soul Is Mine
Author: Emily Brontë
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heavens glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.
O God within my breast.
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life, that in me has rest,
As I, Undying Life, have power in Thee!
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,
To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by Thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The steadfast Rock of immortality.
With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.
Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.
There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou, Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.
The poem references God and faith, making it suitable for religious funeral services.
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10) If Tomorrow Starts Without Me
Author: David Romano
Please note the audio recording may not exactly match the text version as poems are sometimes tailored/personalised.
If tomorrow starts without me, and I’m not here to see,
If the sun should rise you find your eyes all filled with tears for me;
I wish so much you wouldn’t cry the way you did today,
While thinking of the many things we didn’t get to say.
I know how much you love me, as much as I love you
And each time that you think of me, I know you’ll miss me too.
But when tomorrow starts without me please try to understand,
That an angel came and called my name and took me by the hand.
He said my place was ready, in heaven far above
And that I’d have to leave behind all those I dearly love.
But as I turned and walked away a tear fell from my eye.
For all my life I’d always thought, I didn’t want to die.
I had so much to live for, so much left yet to do.
It seemed almost impossible that I was leaving you.
I thought of all the yesterdays the good ones and the bad.
I thought of all the love we shared, and all the fun we had.
If I could relive yesterday, just even for a while,
I’d say goodbye and kiss you and maybe see you smile.
But then I fully realized that this could never be,
For emptiness and memories would take the place of me.
When I thought of worldly things I might miss come tomorrow
I thought of you and when I did my heart was filled with sorrow.
When I walked through heavens gates I felt so much at home.
God looked down and smiled at me from his great golden throne
He said, “This is eternity and all I’ve promised you”
Today your life on earth has passed but here life starts anew.
I promise no tomorrow, but today will always last
And since each day is the same there’s no longing for the past.
You have been so faithful so trusting and so true.
Though there were times you did some things you knew you shouldn’t do.
You have been forgiven and now at last you’re free.
So won’t you come and take my hand and share my life with me?
So when tomorrow starts with out me don’t think we’re far apart,
For every time you think of me, I’m right here in your heart.
The references to God, heaven, and angels align with religious themes common in funeral poetry.
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See 11 more Religious Funeral Poems
Prayer Of St. Francis Of Assisi
Epitaph On My Own Friend
God Saw You Getting Tired
Turn Again To Life
If I Should Never See The Moon Again
In Memory
Footprints On The Sands Of Time
The Best And Most Beautiful Things In The World
No Coward Soul Is Mine
If Tomorrow Starts Without Me
Crossing The Bar
When We Lose A Loved One
The Lord's My Shepherd - Psalm 23
Precious Flower
Poem Of Life
Mother's Love
May The Blessing Of Light Be On You
Irish Blessing
Footprints Poem Funeral
Come To Me When I'M Dying
As Long As Hearts Remember
Epitaph On My Own Friend
God Saw You Getting Tired
Turn Again To Life
If I Should Never See The Moon Again
In Memory
Footprints On The Sands Of Time
The Best And Most Beautiful Things In The World
No Coward Soul Is Mine
If Tomorrow Starts Without Me
Crossing The Bar
When We Lose A Loved One
The Lord's My Shepherd - Psalm 23
Precious Flower
Poem Of Life
Mother's Love
May The Blessing Of Light Be On You
Irish Blessing
Footprints Poem Funeral
Come To Me When I'M Dying
As Long As Hearts Remember
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