October 31, 2012 WBAS Topics Prayer, REL Seasons - Feast Days/Holidays, REL Topic- Saints, REL Asset - Prayer Card
By: Kathy Hendricks
My mother made only one request for her funeral. She wanted the song, “Eagles’ Wings” to be part of the service. In similar fashion, Ron and I have each picked out a song we’d like played upon our deaths. To date, it’s the extent of our funeral plans. I guess this isn’t uncommon. Music has long been part of mourning those who have died as well as a way to celebrate the lives they lived. Some cultures have a time-honored tradition of “keening” - high-pitched wailing that expresses the grief that comes with deep loss. Others take to the streets and dance their way to the graveyard, mingling the music of desolation with that of exuberant hope.
While mourning happens year-round, this is a particular time to remember the dead. All Saints Day (November 1) is followed in Catholic tradition by All Souls Day (November 2) – a time to commemorate all of those have passed before us. While we offer prayers on their behalf, we also draw strength and comfort from their memory. Music sung or played at funerals enhances that sense of recall. After 34 years, a sweet lyric brings my daughter, Jenny, back to me in some mysterious way and encapsulates what I felt then and now about her brief life. “All I ask of you is to remember me as loving you.” (“All I Ask” by Monks of Weston Priory). In like manner, “Eagles’ Wings” takes on renewed meaning since my mother’s death.
Woody Allen once observed that, for Americans, death is optional. We prefer the illusion that we can avoid, or at least forestall it, by tweaking a few health habits or replacing a body part or two. All Souls Day is a somber reminder not only of the inevitability of death, but also of the connection with what the ancient Celts called the “eternal world.” As the late John O’Donohue wrote, death carries us home where “… all that we seek – goodness, unity, beauty, truth, and love – are no longer distant for us…” (Anam Cara, page 229). This makes death something to sing about.
Bright Ideas
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Use the Commemoration of All Souls Day as an opportunity to recall with your family or class someone who has died. How do memories of that person bring comfort and even joy?
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Download my Prayer for Those Who Have Died, and use it in your home or parish.
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