Grace Therese Laprade

Grace, our daughter — we never held you in our arms, but oh, how we held you. Beneath a heartbeat, beneath a hope, beneath every prayer we whispered before we even knew your name. You were wanted. You were welcomed. You were already ours, and we were already yours.

We planned for you. We dreamed of who you would become. We loved you with a love that did not need to wait for sight or sound — a love that began the moment we knew you were there, and a love that has not ended, and will not end.

The Lord who knit you in secret has gathered you home. We cannot follow you yet, little one, but we trust the One who carries you. Pray for us from where you are, as we pray for you from here. And keep a place for us, beloved daughter, beside the throne of the One whose grace gave you your name.

Beloved daughter, rest in the Lord.

Thomas Poteet & Son Funeral Directors, 214 Davis Rd., Augusta, GA 30907 (706) 364-8484. Please sign the guestbook at www.thomaspoteet.com

SCRIPTURE

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” — JEREMIAH 1:5

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” — MATTHEW 19:14

“The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.” — WISDOM 3:1

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more.” — REVELATION 21:4

PRAYERS

Eternal Rest · Requiem æternam

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

A Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows

O Mother of Sorrows, who stood beneath the Cross and received into your arms the body of your Son, receive also our little Grace into your maternal embrace. Comfort us in our grief as you were comforted in yours, and lead us in hope to the day when every tear shall be wiped away. Amen.

By the Holy Innocents

Holy Innocents, first martyrs of Christ, you who beheld the face of the Lamb before you knew the world's sorrows — pray for our Grace, and for all the children whom this world has not held. Amen.

HOW THE CHURCH HAS LOVED YOU: With gratitude for the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Long before we knew you were ours, you were His. The God who weaves galaxies into being knelt down, in the quiet of your mother’s body, and lovingly knit you together — every cell, every promise, every part of who you were going to be. The Church has always held this with trembling reverence: that from the very first moment of your existence, you were already a person, already infinitely loved, already embraced by the tenderness of God Himself. (Psalm 139:13 · CCC 2270)

You were never an idea. You were never a possibility waiting to become someone. You were Grace — a daughter, a sister, a soul, a face known to heaven before any of us could see your face. The Church receives the words the Lord spoke to Jeremiah and gives them to you as your own: before He formed you in the womb, He knew you; before you were born, He had already consecrated you. He had already chosen your name. He had already loved you with an everlasting love. (Jeremiah 1:5 · Jeremiah 31:3)

This is why the Church gathers around little ones like you with such fierce gentleness. She defends you, she prays for you, she calls you what God calls you — a person, a gift, a child made for eternity. She has never once treated the smallest, the hidden, the unseen as anything less than wholly beloved. The same arms she opens at the altar are the arms she opens for you. (CCC 2274)

And when a child is gathered home before the waters of Baptism could be poured, the Church does not turn away. She kneels with the parents in their grief, offers her rites of farewell, and trusts her little one wholly to the mercy of God — a mercy wider than any sea, deeper than any sorrow, tender beyond all our imagining. We are given firm ground to hope: the God who desires all to be saved, and the Lord Jesus who said “Let the little children come to me,” will not refuse what He Himself has so loved. (CCC 1261 · Mark 10:14 · 1 Timothy 2:4)

So we entrust you, Grace, into the hands that first held you. You are not lost. You are not alone. You are held in a love older than your parents’ love, older than the Church’s love, older than time itself — the love that gave you, and that keeps you still. And one day, by that same mercy, we will see your face. (Revelation 21:4)

Beloved daughter, rest in the Lord. †