Funeral Readings
PLEASE NOTE:
The scriptures listed below are commonly preferred funeral readings. You are free to make approved alternative selections from the New American Bible, Revised Edition.
FIRST READING:
Job 19:23-27a “I know that my Vindicator lives…”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens…”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-12 Same as above, but adds ending, “God has made everything appropriate to its time.”
Wisdom 3:1-6.9 short version “The souls of the just are in the hand of God…”
Wisdom 3:1-6.9 long version “The souls of the just are in the hand of God…”
Wisdom 4: 7-15 “The just man, though he die early, shall be at rest…”
Isaiah 25:6-9 “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples…”
Daniel 12:1-3 “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake…”
SECOND READING:
Romans 5:5-11 “The love of God has been poured into our hearts…”
Romans 6:3-4, 8-9 short version “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?...”
Romans 6:3-9 long version “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?...”
Romans 8:14-23 “…we are children of God, and if children, then heirs…”
Romans 8:31b, 35, 37-39 “If God is for us, who can be against us?...”
Romans 14:7-9, 10c-12 “If we live, we live for the Lord…”
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 short version “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits…”
1 Corinthians 15:20-28 long version “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits…”
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 “We know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God…”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope...”
Revelation 14:13 “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord…”
Revelation 21:1-4 “I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth…”
Revelation 21:1-5a, 6b-7 Begins as above, but goes on “Behold, I make all things new…”
GOSPEL:
Matthew 5:1-12a (Beatitudes) “Blessed are the meek…”
Matthew 11:25-30 “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest...”
Matthew 25:31-46 Separation of sheep and goats: “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father…”
Luke 24:13-16, 28-35 short version (Road to Emmaus) “…he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread...”
John 5:24-29 “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life...”
John 6:37-40 “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day...”
John 11:21-27 short version “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live…”
John 11:32-45 “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died..”
John 12:23-26 short version “Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life…”
John 12:23-28 long version “Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.”
John 14:1-6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me...”