Thursday, November 30, 2006
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"The one religion is beyond all speech. Imperfect men put it into such language as they can command, and their words are interpreted by other men equally imperfect. Hence the necessity for tolerance, which does not mean indifference towards one's own Faith, but a more intelligent and pure love for it."
[Source: Light of India or Message of Mahatmaji by M. S. Deshpande]I am so strong! Last night we filled the U-Haul with all our big furniture, slowly, painstakingly, with a few bruises here and there. I don't feel sore at the moment, but I think my deltoids and my gluteus medius are going to be screaming at me within the next few hours. The husband doesn't work today, so he dropped me at my mom's while he went to get more cat litter and put the bed together and such. I offered to stay, but he's a night owl and wanted to get more work done before he slept. The U-Haul is due back at 1:30 today. I'll call him when I switch offices to make sure he's up and see if he'll need a ride. My afternoon boss has been such a dear in letting me borrow the time I need to get this move accomplished. It's not like I have an unclimbable mountain of work to do for him; I'm hired for 3.5 hours a day for the man but it's rare when I have more than an hour of actual work to do. As soon as the move is over, though, I may go into a winter cleaning mode and get rid of some more outdated manuscripts and print out copies of the ones we haven't decided to publish yet. Oh yeah!
This morning, my two big charges are to buy Christmas ornaments from some of my students and to lead a meeting to plan this year's Prayer Service to preceed our Christmas Luncheon. Looking over the program from last year, I know we're not going to need to change much. Two of our secretarial staff have had family members die in the last month. I want to make sure we get a full list of the deceased and of the sick. Praying for the sick is definitely useful and beautiful. Praying for the dead seems more a uniquely Catholic tradition. We pray for God to grant them eternal rest. Has that decision not been made already? I don't know if Catholics today actually think about the idea of purgatory and prayer indulgences slowly buying souls into heaven, but I really doubt that these prayers are said in that spirit. I love the prayers for the dead because they help us remember those who have passed, and they keep us both reverent and a little joyful. Does anybody have any insight on your tradition's prayers for the dead?
Peace!
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Comments (19)
My tradition has no such accomodation.
Good job on the move!
Hey thanks for telling me about your mom's order. It's nice to know who made purchases; it's a mark of progress for me, today at least!
From what I remember from the 'old college' days, the orthodox Jews sit on low stools, tear their clothes, etc for 7 days after someone has died. On the one year anniversary of the death, they place the headstone on the grave.
We'll probably be over on Saturday - want us to bring food? Perhaps leftovers!!!
Hope the move goes well.
a celebration of the meaning and gifts of the life of the dead...similar to a chinese funeral but with the releasing of a crow and the planting of a tree or something fruitful...I have given eight eulogies to the families of strangers in the capacity as a close kin to a humanist...death takes care of itself really...it is nothing to remember or celebrate everyone does it like taking a good shit...but between that birth and that death...the life lived is both good and bad, wonderful and horrible...in the end, it is a tradition to find the good that was in the life and remember that...
of course, I have remembered myself far and long to remove the very tindrels of "religion" and "spirituality" in my dealings...no one can take the death of a loved one with them, death does not comfort loss, death does not quell love...why observe death...ever? what remains in this time then, are the living and the life that is shared and continues...barring any unforeseen imminenet supernovas or meteors of immense proportion.....short angry and possible crazy people starting to make their own atomic bombs...life is the tradition I have followed to honor what has made it what it is..
When we go into the sweat lodge, we pray for those who have crossed over and for those who have begun the journey but may be having some difficulty finding their way 'home' for whatever reason. Having been raised Catholic, I guess that in principle, it's not much different than the concept of purgatory...the idea that some need our prayers to help them on their journey to the Creator.
The native Americans don't fear death like the traditional Christians do....you know, it's the whole "It's a good day to die" thing.
I have a hard time with many of the traditional Christian cultures' ways of praying for the dead. I don't know, it seems kind of selfish to be completely caught up in one's own pain when death really isn't about the ones left behind. I guess that sounds cold. I mean, I know it's very painful to lose a loved one. But, there is nothing selfless about grief. It's a normal human emotion and those grieving do need our prayers. I know I have needed and been grateful for them.
It's hard to explain. I do believe it's all pretty much the same thing, some of us just look at it a little easier from a different viewpoint.
By the way, I absolutely love, love, love the quote you kicked off this post with. I think I have to swipe it for future use. Seriously, thank you.
Scripturally, praying for the dead is a waste of time. You're absolutely right; the decision has already been made.
Praying for the sick however is Biblical and effective. Prayer is one of the greatest tools God has given us.
We do a sort of memorial service around the end of October with flowers and lists of those we wish to remember and everyone shares a bit. It's quite nifty. RYC: There was a well reviewed biography of Newton by James Gleick entitled Isaac Newton (clever, eh?) published in 2003 by Pantheon. Hope that helps.
My tradition never prays for the dead. But, umm, no love for Penrose? He uses more exclamation points than any other scientist I've read so far!
!
And Belz says smething like, "They tout the virtue of tolerance, which for them is a simple mask for indifference ..."
I like your quote much better.
But my favorite prayer for the dead is the Hebrew Kaddish. It is only about life, about the relationship of Israel, humanity, and God, and on top of that, it is stunningly beautiful as a chant.
I'm glad your afternoon boss is being understanding you are working so hard! And you sound like you have a bundle of energy too. Already thinking of getting things done after. I bow down to you ma'am!
RYC---Those pictures on the wall is from http://www.xanga.com/maralite 's "prayer" room [BTW, besides being HER birthday today, she now has a picture of me little ERlings posted up now
] The turquoise ring is from Mara, via Hendrix...HE is the one who got me into the ring thang
RE your post---We all KNOW that only Catholics go to heaven...Protestants MAY get a Job in the afterlife as janitors, and Muslims BETTER hope the krishna folk are right and they'll reincarnate as roaches in the next life