Our department lost a co-worker this week so I have been pondering about what death means. In our society we seem to sweep death under the rug and to only face up to it when we lose a loved one. Different religions have varying ways they deal with death as well. My first real brush with death was when my Grandpa died, I was about 12. All the old "Aunties" were weeping and wailing by his coffin at the viewing.
My first LDS funeral was much different, it was almost joyful, it was a hopeful thing.
I don't think I want people's last impression of me to be my cold dead face. It is a ritual though, and I guess a way to help those who are our loved ones grieve.
We deal with death at the hospital where I work. We are always trying to prevent it, it is the enemy, the thing we don't want for our patients.
Please remember- We will live again, in joy with our Lord.(That is easy to say I guess but harder to remember when you are grieving.)
My co-worker had this nice prayer on his funeral card, my grandma used to have this same prayer on a plaque in her bedroom, also. I especially like the end part.
Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
