Life is Short
I was watching the very sad recounting of the September 11 tragedy yesterday on televsion when I got a shocking news by a phone call that a close friend from church suddenly died in her home. This came as a total shock because I was with this friend almost the whole day on Sunday. My family and I went to her home immediately and found the Coroner's van outside the house and the priest giving her last rites and annointing. With the September 11th memorial and the sudden passing of Grace on Sept. 11, 2005, it reminds us of how short life is and the gift of every breath we take. I remember a prayer after communion that goes...
Thank you Lord for giving yourself to me and now I give myself to you,
I give you my body so it may be pure and chaste,
I give you my soul so it may be free from sin,
I give you my heart so it may love you always,
I give you every breath that I shall breath especially my last,
I give myself in life and in death.
Please pray for Grace and her family. Let us remember in our prayers also all those who died in the September 11th tragedy and their families who are still mourning their loss.
Thank you Lord for giving yourself to me and now I give myself to you,
I give you my body so it may be pure and chaste,
I give you my soul so it may be free from sin,
I give you my heart so it may love you always,
I give you every breath that I shall breath especially my last,
I give myself in life and in death.
Please pray for Grace and her family. Let us remember in our prayers also all those who died in the September 11th tragedy and their families who are still mourning their loss.
4 Comments:
As you have said, and the quick and unexpected loss of your friend makes so achingly clear, "Life is short."
I am so sorry for your loss.
Life is so ephemeral... that we must always pray, "This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalms 118:24).
I hope the hymn, "This is the day the Lord hath made," brings you comfort. It is lovely:
(http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/t/h/i/thisitdl.htm).
God bless you and your friend,
Denice
Thank you so much Denice! I am grateful for your comforting words and the lovely hymn that you recommended. May God bless you for your kind heart!
Im sorry to hear about your friend and will keep the family in my prayers. Life is indeed short and precious, it makes some of us think that we should make the most of each other while we still have them and they still have us.
Being reunited with God is a very comforting thought, my favorite scripture regarding those who have departed is:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
We want you to be quite certain brothers, about those who have died, to make sure that you do not grieve about them, like the other people who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those, who have died in Jesus" God will bring them with him. We can tellyou this fromt eh Lord's own teaching, that will not have any advantage over those who have died. At the trumpet of God, the voice of the achangels will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven, thos who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall stay with the Lord forever.
With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another
Carmel, thank you for the wonderful scripture passage - especially the part "those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air".
Yes, our faith is full of hope in the ressurection. Thanks for this reminder and thanks for your words of comfort. God bless you!
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