Upon hearing that anyone has lost his or her life, Muslims recite the short statement, “from Almighty God we come and to Him is our return.”

Catholic Christians pray, “Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”

Jews and Christians know from Ecclesiastes 12.7 “The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

Hinduism says, “As a man passes from dream to wakefulness, so does he pass at death from this life to the next.” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.11-14, 35).

Buddhists have peace in the knowledge that “Man’s real nature is primarily spiritual life, which weaves its threads of mind to build a cocoon of flesh, encloses its own soul in the cocoon….Just as the silkworm will break out of its cocoon and fly free, so too, will man break out of his body-cocoon and ascend to the spiritual world when his time is come. Never think that the death of the physical body is the death of man. Since man is life, he will never know death. (Seicho-no-ie. Nectarean Shower of Holy Doctrines.)

Let us pray in the tradition of our faiths — together — as God’s family, to assist those transitioning to the spiritual realms and those dealing with the traumas of lives forever changed. And let us move forward together as one family.

[From prayers compiled by the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, c/o Frank Kaufmann: world_prayer@myway.com]