Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment

Today’s theme is “Memories.” This afternoon my husband and I drove back from Mt. Pleasant after attending the funeral of a friend’s sister. The funeral home was packed with hundreds of people, all of whom had come to give tribute to a woman who had taught high school math in a small town.

The room was full of flowers and photographs, the latter bringing up the sweetest memories of a life well spent. She was only 50 years old, but looking around I couldn’t help but feel that hers was a life well lived.

On the ride home, I thought about the beauty of this woman’s life, and it reminded me of one of my favorite movies about heaven, “What Dreams May Come.” The intertwined lives of the family, their memories in life, connected them in death. Although it would be an overstatement to say the movie reflects a Catholic understanding of the afterlife, it does call to mind the love that can be transmitted and sustained through the power of memories cherished.

What memories can you share with your beloved, to build up and sustain your love?