![]() Third, after you use your mind to think about this reality, it is also important to lift your heart in prayer. As you think about death’s inevitability and imagine it, allow your mind to penetrate the reality, not just to think about it in a detached way. Second, imagine yourself on your deathbed or dying suddenly. First, think something along the lines of, I could die at any time. But here is one way you could go about it. And how you do it from day to day will vary. The entire point of the practice is that death could come at any time, so it’s necessary to remember this regularly.īut what does one do exactly when meditating on death? No formula for the perfect meditation on death exists. It makes no sense to prepare every once in a while for death and the afterlife. Benedict urged his monks in his Rule to “keep death daily” before their eyes (Rule, 4.47). Meditation on death is not helpful if done irregularly. What makes it intimidating is not what it involves but what it brings up, as well as the required regularity. The answer is simple this practice really is not complicated. You may be wondering, So, how exactly does one go about remembering death? For those who choose to accept the grace of salvation, death is a positive step, a doorway to heaven. Meditation on death in this context is not morose, but rather becomes a celebration. Why meditate on these things? Because thinking about the definite end of life - death - necessarily leads to the consideration of life’s possible ends. Meditation on death as well as judgment, hell, and heaven has been encouraged in the Church for centuries. Just as death is a doorway to the afterlife, meditation on death is the doorway to meditation on the afterlife, or what has traditionally been called the “Last Things.” For the Christian, however, remembrance of death extends beyond the reality of earthly life and bodily death. The value and benefits of meditating on death in this way has been recognized by philosophers and other religious traditions for millennia. In the New Testament, Jesus exhorts this practice when he tells his disciples to pick up their crosses daily as they follow him to the Place of the Skull: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). The psalmist prays, “Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart” (Psalm 90:12). My favorite passage is from the Book of Sirach: “In whatever you do, remember your last days, and you will never sin” (7:36). God’s reminder continues to echo throughout the Old Testament, reminding readers of life’s brevity while exhorting them to remember their death. God says to Adam and Eve as they leave the Garden of Eden: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). But the practice of remembering death stretches back to the very beginning of salvation history. This phrase and the symbols and sayings associated with it were particularly popular in the medieval Church. Memento mori, or “remember your death,” is the Latin phrase long associated with the practice of remembering the unpredictable and inevitable end of one’s life. He kept a skull on his desk as a memento mori to remind him of his death. James Alberione, the founder of my religious order, the Daughters of St. When I first got a skull for my desk, I was inspired by Bl. But over time, as I delved more into it, I realized that this tradition has a rich and long history. I actually knew very little about the tradition of meditating on death in the Church when I started. And I can now honestly say that meditating on my death daily has changed my life. A couple of weeks into the practice, I wondered if I ever should have begun. At first as I meditated on my death, I felt anxious and full of doubt. It was a thought that, like most people, I had put a lot of energy into avoiding. You might be thinking, “Well, that sounds unpleasant.” And you would be partly right. I have been meditating daily on my inevitable and unpredictable death for more than two years now. Several years into my time in the convent, I decided to acquire a little ceramic skull for my desk, and I started to meditate on my death regularly. Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP I have a skull on my desk
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