In a time where our bodies feel fragile,

our time feels short,

our inevitable end looms largely before us,

we remember that from dust we came and to dust we will return.

We feel it now more than ever, O Lord.

Unrest and uncertainty reveal to us that

you are sovereign and we are not.

Our bodies groan with sickness and fear,

longing to die so we can be reborn.

Who will deliver us from this body of death?

Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Though our bodies are perishable,

they will be raised imperishable.

Though we are sown in weakness,

we will be resurrected by the power of the Spirit.

Holy Father, may the knowledge of our mortality not terrify us.

Instead, may this unveiling relieve us to remember that we depend on You.

Though our bodies will expire, help us fix our eyes on what is unseen.

We are at your mercy, O God.

Thank you for this opportunity to remember our humanity.

We need your help, God,

to rejoice in everlasting hope,

to persevere through temporary suffering,

to be unceasing in prayer.

With faithful trembling, we know that the perishable cannot inherit the imperishable.

This is certainly a mystery,

but though our bodies die

we will not be swallowed up by death.

We will all be changed.

Amen.