Today's ephemera: Funeral cards

[NB: I'm neither endorsing nor mocking Christianity. I just like the art and tradition of these cards.]

Many years ago, when my Aunt Mary died, I picked up these funeral cards from a table outside the chapel where her services were held. I've only seen them at Catholic funerals, but perhaps they're more widespread than that.

Here's an article on funeral cards from Ancestry.com (they turn out to be an important source of genealogical information), and a source to buy any of a number of sets. Apparently, it used to be common to send these to those whom the family wished to invite to the funeral, but I've only ever seen them at the church or funeral home, given away as a memorial keepsake, or possibly a memento mori. Being greedy, I wanted the whole set. 

But, really, I think they have a beautiful, ethereal, reassuring quality to them. Surely, this is what heaven is like, they suggest to us.

Below, you can see what the back of Mary's card looks like. Also on the page are a Virgin of Guadalupe card from a different funeral (fittingly, it was for a Mexican-American woman who was my "second mom" growing up), and the front and back of a more general prayer card that has a kind of Eastern Orthodox look about it, which I think I found in a book.