Religious Funerals

Sample Gospel Acclamations & Gospels

Gospel Acclamations

Matthew 25:34
Alleluia, alleluia! ‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed, says the Lord; take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.’ Alleluia!

John 3:16
Alleluia, alleluia! ‘God loved the world so much that we gave his only Son; everyone who believes in him has eternal life.’ Alleluia!

Psalm 24:3
Alleluia, alleluia! Those who hope in you, O Lord, shall not be disappointed! Alleluia!

John 11: 25-26
Alleluia, alleluia! ‘I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord: whoever believes in me will never die.’Alleluia!

John 6: 51-52
Alleluia, alleluia! ‘ I am the living bread which has come down from heaven, says the Lord. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’ Alleluia!

Revelation 14:13
Alleluia, alleluia! ‘Happy are those who die in the Lord! Now they can rest for ever after their work, since their good deeds go with them.’ Alleluia!

Gospels

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (14:1-6)

There are many rooms in my Father’s house.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me, so that where I am you may be too. You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’

The Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 5: 1-12

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill.
There he sat down and was joined by his disciples.
Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:
How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right: they shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart: they shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy are you when people revile you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.’

The Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

A reading from the holy Gospel According to John (11:32)

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the people who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the people said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?” So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Takeaway the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them “Untie him and let him go.” Now many of the people who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

The Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

A reading from the holy Gospel According to John 17: 24-26

I want them to be with me where I am

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: ‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see the glory you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Father, Righteous One, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them’.

The Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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