I finally got around to translating these a few weeks ago. The Entrance Hymns are pretty intense exhortations to repentance for the living, as the casket is brought into the church; the Recessional Hymns are a touching goodbye spoken in the person of the deceased, whose casket is being taken out while they are sung. I recorded each set for your listening displeasure.

Entrance Hymns:

Recessional Hymns:

Chaldean Funeral Rite Hymns

Entrance Hymns

– Give thanks to him and bless his Name.

Give thanks, O mortals, to the Son who saved

us from slavery to death,

which had strangled us in sin,

for he went down into Sheol

and the dead raised from the grave.

Who can repay the grace of God

granted to the race of all mortal men?

– My mouth will wisdom speak.

Refuge take in repentance, sinful ones,

for the time is so short:

this world blooms and dies away!

There will be, for the repentant, joy,

death for the unjustified.

For if you justly judged, O Lord,

who on earth would be without any fault?

– Do not depend on power or mankind.

Do not de-pend on riches or on strength,

for they do not save you

from death or eternal fire.

Place your trust upon our God,

in whose hands are death and life,

and he will save you from darkness

which awaits all those who do evil deeds.

– A brother does not save.

Do not pursue the pleasures of this life,

for they flee like shadows,

and you lose eternal life.

What would any of us gain,

if he were to gain the world,

but lose his soul in Gehanna,

whose fire never fades,

and which never ends.

– They leave what they have to others.

As long as we are in this passing world,

the door of repentance

and forgiveness is open.

Let us pacify Justice

by transforming all our sins,

and escape from the just judgment,

whose measure is sharp,

and whose pain is harsh.

– Rich and poor together.

Let us please Christ the King through our good works,

who sees our intentions,

and brings all our thoughts to light,

lest he see us drown by the

weakness of our temptations,

and say that “I do not know you;

go, depart from me, workers of evil.”

– Save your people, and the sheep of your flock.

We implore you, O Christ the King of kings,

that you may forget your

servants’ faults who have received

your Flesh and your Blood, and may you stand

for them on the day they rise,

that they be saved from Gehanna

and meet you in praise, with the hosts above!

Recessional Hymns

– From now and unto an age.

Farewell to my temporal dwelling,

which cannot save those within it.

I go to the land of glory,

where the faithful and the just live.

– May the blessing of the Lord be upon you.

Farewell, my friends and relations,

may the Lord repay your kindness.

When you stand before the altar,

please remember me in prayer.

– Which does not have salvation.

Farewell to the world which passes,

whose wealth ends, and whose glory fades.

I go to the city of kings,

the Jerusalem above.

– I will bless the Lord at all times.

Blest your day, Son of the Mighty,

which tears open the womb of Sheol!

Glorious is your day of raising,

which all ages await with longing.

– They will pass, but you will remain.

Lo, this world is passing quickly,

and its pleasures are all empty!

Blest is he who made provision

for the world that lasts forever.

– I sought, but I did not find.

Lo, I see this world is drowning

in the evils that surround it.

May your living cross protect me,

and bring me to peaceful harbor.

– The hope of all the ends of the earth.

No hope do we have to boast in

save your cross, O our Absolver,

for it is our mighty fortress,

and it saves us from all peril.

– In the morning, let me hear your voice.

Lord, in mercy, let your servants

hear your voice which gave them comfort.

Say to them the word that you spoke:

“Sinners, your debts are absolved.”

– How good and lovely it is.

May we all now hear the word which

comes unto us from the Preacher:

“O sons of men, rise, awaken:

may you repent of all your sins.”

– Praise him with the sound of trumpet.

With the sound of horn and trumpet,

all the dead and buried will rise,

and give praise to Father and Son,

and the Holy Spirit, one God.

– He lifts his voice and shakes the earth.

Like the voice which called Lazarus,

and awakened him from the tomb,

may your voice eradicate death,

and raise us up from our decay.

– Brightness and glory before him.

On the day you come, Lord Jesus,

you will raise the dead in glory.

All the just will stand before you;

we pray that we may be with them.