On The Third Day Of Christmas: Embracing Mortality

This is the third in a series of posts  for each of  the twelve days of Christmas, adapted from some emails I've sent to our three adult children--beloved uncles, aunts and parents of our six grandchildren:

I often wonder about the impact of the death of friends, family members, and even pets, on children. I well remember as a child having a mortal dread of the moment when one of my parents would lift me to see the body of a deceased person in a coffin at a viewing. 

I don't remember my children sharing that fear. Maybe I conditioned them to seeing bodies in caskets by occasionally taking them on pastoral rounds that included a stop at Grandles Funeral Home, thus introducing them to this sad but inevitable part of life, for better or worse.

My prayer for all this week is that each of us, young or old or in between, can embrace and celebrate all of life from beginning to end, from birth to what we believe is a second birthing, one that delivers us from the womb of this world to the new and forever life beyond.

When the time comes to enter the new world, may we all "lay ourselves down to sleep" with the satisfaction that we've accomplished our mission, one of helping, for God's sake, to make this present world a little a better place for our having lived in it.

Much love, many prayers.