the casket remains in the hearse. in a moment it will be carried through a military corden. the right reverend mariann edgar budde, bishop of the diocese will announce the prayer of the reception of the body. and the body will then be carried into the cathedral and positioned at the crossing. bush to be seated moily. actually, they are coming right behind us now. >> looks like with the former

president.

♪

♪ >> with faitin jesus christ, we receive the body of our or

brother for burial. let us pray with confidence to i god thr of life that he will raise him to perfection in the company of saints. deliver your servant, george, sovereign lord christ, from all evil and set him free from every bond, that he may rest with all your saints in the eternal habitations where with the father, and the holy spirit, you live and reign, one god, forever and ever. n. >> a >> let us pray also for alwho mourn, that they may cast their care on god and love his love. al mighty god look for pity on the sorrow of your servants for whom we pray.

remember them gracious god in mercy, nourish them with tience, comfort them with a sense of your goodness, lift your peace above them and give them peace through jesus christ our lord.

>> amen. ♪

♪ ♪

ti >> i am the resurr and i am the life says the lord. however has faith in me wi have life even though he died.

so then whether we live or die . are the lord's possessi happy from now on are those who die in the lord. fso it says says the spir

they rest from their labors. ready. step.

forward. ♪

♪ ♪

♪ >> the lord be with you. >> also with you. >> let us pray. oh god whose mercys cannot be numbered, except our prayers on behalf of your servant george an and him an entrance into the land of light and joy in the

fellowship of your saints through jesus christ our lord wh lives and reigns with you odand the holy spirit, one now and forever. amen.>>

reading from the prophet isaiah. a ise, for darkness shall cover the earth and a thick darkness, the people's. ppt the lord will arise upon you and his glory willr over you. nations all come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn. lift up your eyes and look around. they all gather together. they come to you. your sons shall come from far wei away and your dahters shall be carried on the nurses arms. then your heart shall thrill and rejoice because of the abundan of the sea shall be brought to and the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

>> violence shall no more be heard in your land. devastation or destruction within your borders. you shalcall your walls n, salvatnd your gates praise. the sun shall no longer be you light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night. but the lord will be your ever lasting light and your god wil be your glory. your sun shall no more go down or yon withdraw itself, for the lord will be your ever lasting light and your days of mourning shall be ended. the word of the lord.

>> praise be to go >> the story w almost over, even before it had fully begun. shortly after dawn on saturday,

september 2nd, 1944, lieutenant junior gray george herbert us walkerjoined by two roommates went to attack a radio tower. t y approached the target, the air was heavy with flack. the plane was hit. smoke filled the cockpit. flames raced across the wings. my god, lieutenant bush thought, this thing is going to go down. yet he kept the plane in 35-degree dive, dropped s bombs, and then roared off out to sea.g tells crew mates to hit the silk. following protocol, lieutenant bush turned the plane so they could bail out. only then did bush parachute from the cockpit. the wind propelled h backward,

and he gashed his head on the tail of the plane as he flew thugh the sky. he plunged deep into the ocean, bond to e surface and flopped on to a tiny raft. his head bleeding, his eyes burning, his mouth and throat raw from saltwater, the future 41st president of the united states was alone. sensing that hisen had not made it, he was overcome. he felt the weight of responsibility as nearly physical burden. and he wept. then, at fouminutes shy of noon, a submarine emerged to rescue the downed pilot. george herbert walker bushas safe.

the story, his story and ours, would go on by god's grace. through the ensuing decades, president bush would frequently ask nearly daily, heed ahe'd as himself, why me, why was i spared. and in a sense, the rest of his life was a perennial effort to i provelf worthy of his salvation on that distant morning. to him, his life was no longer s own. there were always more missions to undertake, more lives to touch, and more love to give. and what aheadlong race he made of it all. n er slowed down.

on the primary campaign trail in new hampshire once, he grabbed the hand of a mannequin asking for votes. when he realized his mistake, he said, never know, got to ask. you can hear the voice, can't you? as dana car have said, it's wan rogers trying to be john wayne.l george herbertr bush was america's last great soldier states men, a 20th century founding fathe he governored with virtu that most closely resembled those of wad ington and adams, of tr

fdr, of truman, and of eisenhower, of men who believed in causes larger then es themse 6'2", handsome, dominant in person, president buke with those big strong hans, making fists to underscore points. a master of what franklin roosevelt called the science of human relationships. he believed that to who much was given much is expected. and because life gave him so much, he gave back again and again and again. he stood in the breach and the cold war against totalism, he stood against unthinking partisanship. he stood in the breach against tyranny and discrimination. and on his watch, a wall fell in berlin.

a dictator's aggression did not stand. and doors across america opened to those with disabilities. and in his psonal life, he stood in the breach against heart break and hurt, always offering an outstretched hand, a warm word, a sympathetic tear. if you were down, he would rush to lift you up. w and if ye soaring, he would rush to savor your success. strong and gracious, comforting and charming, loving and loyal, he was our shield in dangers e ur. now, of course, ths ambition, too, loads of that.

to serve, he had to succeed. to provid to proceed he had toei prevail. politics is a pure undertaking. not if you want to win it's not. an impfect man, he left us a more perfect union. it must be said that for a keenly intelligent states man of stirring almost unperiled private eloquenc public speaking was not exactly a strong suit. fluency in english, president bush once remarked is sothing that i'm often not accused of. looking ahead to the '88 election, he observed in ab ar it's no exaggeration to say the undecided could go one

way or the other. and late in his presidency, he allowed that we e enjoying sluggish times, but we are not enjoying them very much. his tongue may have run a muck m ents but his heart was steadfast. his life code, as he said, was tell the truth. don't blame people. be stron do your best. try hard. forgive. stay the course. and that was and is the most american of creeds. abraham lincoln's better nature,

t and george w. bush of li hymn. for lincoln and bush both called on us to choose the right over the convenient. to hope rather than to fear. and to heed not our wors impulses, but our best instincts. in this work he had the most wonderful of allies in barbara pe pierce bush of 73 years. he called her barb, the silver d forks,hen the situation warranted, the enforcer. he was the only boy she ever kissed. her children, mrs. bush liked to say, always wanted to throw up when they heard that. in a letter to barbara during the war, young george bush h written i love you precious with all my heart. and to know that you love me

means my life. how lucky our children will be h to have a like you. and as they will tell you, they surely were.id as vice prt, bush once visited a children's leukemia wa ward, 35 years before they had lost a daughter robin to the disease. a small boy wanted to meet the american vice president. learng that the child was si with the cancer that had taken robin, bush began to cry. to h diary later that day, t vice president said this, my eyes flooded with tears. and behind me was a bank of 'tlevision cameras. and i thought, i curn around, i can't dissolve because

of persol tragedy in the face of the nurses that give of kiemselves every day. so i stood there l at this little guy, tears running down my cheek, hong he wouldn't e.di but if h hoping he would feel that i loved him. that was the real george h.w. bush, a loving man, with a bill, vibrant, all involving heart. and so we ask, as we commend his soul to god, and as he did, why, hy was he spared. the workings of providence are

mysterious, but this one is clear, the george herbert walke bush who survito the pacific three quarters of a century ago, made our lives and the lives of nations freer, better, warmer, and nobler. that was his mission that was his heartbeat. and we if we lten closely enough, we can hear that heartbeat even now for it's the heartbeat of a lion, a lion who ovnot only led us, but who us. that's why him.

that's w he was spared. ♪

♪ ♪

♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ >> a reading from revelation to st. john. then i saw a new heaven, and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had ssed away. and the sea was no more. and i saw the holy city, the new jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from god, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. and i heard a loud voice from the throne saying, see, the home of god is among mortals. he will dwell with them. they will be his people's. and god himself will be with them. he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

death will be no more. mourning and crying and pain will be no more. for the first things have passed ay. dothen he said to me, it i. i am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. to t to the thirsty i will give watef from the sprinhe water of life. those who conquer will inherit these things. and i will be their god, a they will be my children. and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it. for the glory of god is its light. and the lamp is the lamb.wi the nation walk by its light and the kings of the eartr

will bring tlory into it. its gates will never be shut by day. and there will be no night there. the word of the lord. >> thanks be to god. >> do you remember where you

were the summer you left your teenage years behind and turned 20?

the colossal mite. bringing new strength and glory to these united states of america. and 50 or 100 years from now ash historians vie accomplishments and context of all who have served as president, i believe it will be said that in the life of this country, the united states, which is, in my judgment, e greatest democratic republican that god has ever placed on the face of this earth. i believe it will be said that no occupant of the oval office was more courageous, more principled, and more honorable

than george herbert walker bush. george bush was a man of high accomplishment he also had a delightful sense of humor and was a lot of fun. at his first nato meeting in brussels, as the new american president, he sat opposite me, actually, that day. george was taking copious notes, as the heads of governme spoke. we were all limited in time. but, you know, it's very flattee go to he president of the e united states to take notes as you speak. and even someone as modest as me. threw in a few more adjectives there to extend the pleasure of pre experience. after the presidene minister thatcher ancellor

had spoken, it was the turn of d e prime minister of icel who as president bush continued to wte, went on, and on, and on, and on, ending only when the secretary general of nato firmly decreed a coffee break. george put down his pen, walked over to me and said, brian, i've just learned the fundamental principle of international affairs. i said what's that, george? he said the aller the country, the long the speech. [ laughter ] in the second year of the bush presidency, responding t implaquable pressurefrom reagan and bush administrations, the soviet union imploded.

this was, in my judgment, the most political event of the 20th century. anonymous situation that could have become extremely menacing to world security waead deafly challenged by the leadership of president bush in broad and powerful currents of freedom, providing the russian people with the opportunity to build an embryonic dislocatiem lls for freedom cascaded across central and eastern europe leaving dictators and dogma in the trash can of history, no challenge, no challenge assumed greater importance for western solidarity than the union cages of germany within an unsweing nato. but all fears in western europe

and unrelenting hostility by the military establishment in the soviet union and the wsau pact rendered this initiative among the most complex and sensitive ever undertaken. one serious misstep and this entire process could have been there. this most vital junction of the 20th century than chancellor in germany. in a speech to the parliamentary commission, chancellor said categorically that this historic initiative of german renumberer caeds could never have succe within the leadership of president bush.

much has been written about the first gulf w, simply put the coalition of nations assembled under the nations including for the first time many influential arab countries and led by the united states will rank with the most spectacul and successful international initiatives ever undertakenn modern history, designed to punish aggressor, defend the cause of freedo and ensure order in a region that has en too much of the opposite for far too long. this was president bush's initiative from beginning to end. president bush was also responsible for the north american free trade agreement. recently modernized and improved by n administrations, which created the largest and richesta free traa in the history of the world.

lawhile, also, signing int the americans with disabilities act, which transformed the lives f of millions and millions americans forever. president bush's decision to go forward with strong environmental legislation k, cleaning the clean air act that resulted in the acid accord with canada, gift for future americans and canadians to savor in the air they breathe and the water they drink and the forests, rivers and streams they cherish. there is a word for this. it's called leadership. haadership. let me tell you,when george bush was president of the united states of ameriery single heaof government in the world knew they were dealing

with a geneman, a genuine leader, one was that was d, establisest lut and brave. i don't keep a diary, but me somei write personal notes after professional events. inone occurred in walkers in maine on september 2nd, 2001. we had been spending our traditional labor day weekend with george and barbara. towards the end, he ani had a long private conversation. my notes capture the moment. i told george how i thought his mood had shifted over the last eight years. from a series of frustrations and moments of disupon dency in

1983 to the phen thusism i felt with the presidential y librd his governor to that year, to the delig following jeb's election in 1998 followed by the great pride and pleasure with george w.to the presidency. and perhaps most importantly the .erenity we found today in both barbara and geor they are tru at peace with emselves. joyous in what they and the children have achied. gratified by the goodness that god has bestowed upothem all. and genuinely content with the rill and promise of each passing day. and at that, george, had tears in his eyes as i spoke said, you know, brian, you have us pegged

just right and the roller coaster of emotions we've experienced since 1992. come with me. e led me down the porch at walker's point to de of the house that fronts the ocean and pointed to a small simple plaque that had been unobtrusively installed just some days earlier. it read, cavu. george said, brian, this stands for ceiling and visibility unlimited. when i was a terrified 18 to 19-year-old pilot in the pa fic, those were the words we hoped to word before teoff. it meant perfect flying. and that's the way i feel abou

our life today, cavu, everything is perfect. ba barb and i could not have asked for better lives of the we are truly happy and trulat peace. as i looked over the waters of inlkers point on that golden september afternooaine, i was reminded of the lines simple and true that speak to the real nature of george bush and his love of his wonderful family and precious surroundings. there are wooden ships, there are sailing ships, there are ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friendships and