Christian love is an uncommonly powerful virtue; it cannot keep from caring about the living and the dead. As a result, with heartfelt prayer it commends our fellow members who are leaving this world to Christ the Lord and to our God who is blessed forever. This remembrance of the dead, which was practiced of old and still exists in the catholic church, is an open testimony of charity and of faith in the glorious resurrection of the flesh. And since it is a fruit of faith that works through love, no one will reject it except for Epicureans and Sadducees. - Urbanus Rhegius, Confessor of Smalcald and Reformer of the Church of Lüneburg (*Preaching the Reformation* pp. 99, 101)
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