Late at night, while reading Towers in the Mist by Elizabeth Goudge, published in 1935, I came across these words after a death scene: "Spiritus redeat ad Deum, qui dedit illum". After a computer translation search I found Ecclesiastes 12:7--"...and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." (NIV) "The body is put back in the same ground it came from. The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it." (The Message) 
It was a case of old familiar words coming alive in a new light, to renew a failing hope.

Though I cannot now see past the pain

for tears and blood that flow

there is a place deep in myself

hope flickers, soft aglow.

A dull star, but a shining,

expected more than seen,

but the season comes when star will rise,

more bright than pain has been.

Our small lives to compassion

God entered the world God made;

our fleeting joys, our crushing sorrows,

are blessed by The Maker Who Stayed.

Then hope in splendid tendrils

let grow in aching breast:

our breath returns but whence it came

when we return to dust.