Death

To the Cemetery

My mom has been wanting to get out to the cemetery for the past couple of days, but she hasn’t felt good and the weather has not cooperated. Today, it was chilly, but the wind was not blowing. Mom felt ok after lunch, so we decided to go. I bought her some flowers the other […]

Grateful for a Sad Heart

The other day, a friend of mine wrote that she was “grateful for a sad heart” after her aunt passed away. That statement seemed like an oxymoron. Today my parents would have celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary. We all had sad hearts here. I pondered my friend’s gratitude as, to me, the pain my mom […]

Grateful For People and Healing

It had been a very long time since I went for a walk outside, so was very happy to go out with friend today. Evidently it had been a very long time since we caught up. We walked and talked and it felt wonderful. As I recounted what I had been up to, I found […]

Faith Through Violence

On this Good Friday, my mom was all tuckered out from attending Mass last night, so we didn’t make it to church. However, we read through the scriptures and prayers together. We also watched the Stations of the Cross on EWTN. It took place in the Colosseum in Rome. The scene was beautiful and somber […]

The Red Tip

When my mom’s friend comes over, we usually talk about religion and politics. Today we talked about the big question as to why some who were raised in the faith and/or practiced regularly stopped somewhere along the way and no longer go to church. We talked about several reasons why this might be – a […]

Survivor Tree

My sister went to New York to visit a friend and returned today. While she was there, they went into New York City and visited the site of 911 among other things. She showed pictures and talked about the “Survivor Tree”, which I had never heard of. Amongst the rubble of the aftermath of the […]

Pulling Back the Curtain

It is easy for me to get caught up in the things that aren’t going well in my life and the lives of my loved ones. Not to mention the seemingly degradation of the world. In this morning’s meditation, Jeff Cavins said if we were to pull back the curtain between us and the spiritual […]

Beautiful Gestures

A friend of mine told me about some ways she is honoring loved ones. A friend of her’s mother passed away. Several months later, her friend contacted her and asked if she would like some of the religious items that the mom had accumulated. She gratefully accepted. One of the items was a statue of […]

The Afterlife

Unfortunately, my mom’s friend who I mentioned yesterday died this morning. I had a “feeling” about that this morning as I prayed a Divine Mercy Chaplet for her. Of course my mom was sad and we talked about our own mortality. She remembered that at one time, her brother died for a couple of minutes […]

One Year Anniversary

I can’t believe it has been one year since my dad died. In some ways it feels like forever – at other times it’s like yesterday. My mom and I have been anticipating this anniversary. I had scheduled the Mass to have him remembered today. We planned on going to church, then to lunch with […]