Prayer Cards for a Funeral: Template, Prayers, Printing

A funeral prayer card is a small card with a photo or an image on the front and the name, dates and a prayer on the back. Guests take one home from the service. Families keep them in a wallet or a Bible for years, so it is worth getting right. Here is what goes on one, which prayers families choose, and how to print and cut them at home.

What size is a prayer card?

The usual size is 2.5 by 4.25 inches, a little bigger than a playing card. Funeral homes and print shops use it, and it fits in a wallet. Six fit on one letter sheet, three across and two down, which leaves room for cut marks and a margin your printer can handle.

Some families use a larger 4 by 6 inch card or a folded card. Those work too, but the small card is what people expect, and it is the one that ends up kept.

What goes on the front

Most families put a photo of the person on the front. A portrait works best: one face, looking at the camera, cropped from the shoulders up. A clear photo from the last ten years helps people recognize them; a younger photo can be lovely too, especially on a card that will be kept.

Below the photo goes the full name, and often the years, like “1941 – 2026”. Catholic families sometimes use a picture of a saint, Mary or the Sacred Heart instead of a photo, with the photo on the program.

The photo on a card prints about 2 inches wide. That needs only 400 pixels across for a sharp print, so almost any photo works. An old print photographed with a phone is fine once it is straightened and cleaned.

What goes on the back

The back has three parts, centered:

1. “In loving memory” or a similar short line.
2. The full name and the dates of birth and death.
3. A prayer, a psalm, a verse of a hymn or a short poem.

Keep the text short. On a 2.5 inch card, 60 to 90 words is the most that stays readable at a comfortable size.

Prayers and verses families choose

These are the texts we see most often. All of them are in the public domain, so they can be printed in full.

• Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”), King James Version. The most common choice for Protestant families.
• Eternal Rest (“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them”). The traditional Catholic prayer for the dead.
• The Hail Mary. Common on Catholic cards, often with a picture of Mary on the front.
• 2 Timothy 4:7 (“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”). Short and strong, often used at homegoing services.
• The Prayer of Saint Francis (“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace”). Longer, so it needs smaller type.
• A verse of a favorite hymn, such as “Amazing Grace” or “It Is Well with My Soul”.
• An Irish blessing (“May the road rise up to meet you”), for a lighter, less formal card.

Newer texts like “Footprints in the Sand” or “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” are often still under copyright. Funeral homes license them; printing them yourself is a gray area, so we print those as a title only. See our funeral poems page for classic poems you can print freely.

How to print prayer cards at home

1. Paper: cardstock between 80 and 110 lb, white or cream. It feels like a real card and survives a wallet. Most home printers take it from the manual feed tray, one sheet at a time.
2. Print one test sheet first on plain paper. Hold it to the light to check that the backs line up with the fronts.
3. Print double-sided, flip on long edge, at actual size. The backs on our sheet are mirrored so they line up with the fronts.
4. Cut on the small marks at the edges of the sheet, with a paper trimmer or a ruler and a craft knife. A trimmer makes 100 cards in about 15 minutes.

A print shop can print and cut them for you the same day. Ask for “double-sided on cardstock, cut to 2.5 by 4.25 inches”.

How many to print

One per expected guest, plus about one in five extra for family members who could not come and want one sent. Cards cost little to print, and running out at the service is worse than having some left.

Make them with the program

The funeral program maker makes prayer cards from the same photo, name and dates as the program, with the prayer you pick for your tradition. They come on cut sheets of six, front and back, with the thank-you cards and the poster, all in one set.