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Death still stings, even for a Christian. My nephew died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 40, and I had to make all the arrangements. I\u2019ve had too much practice doing so; I think this is the fifth person I have buried: my parents to start, then an impoverished acquaintance who was alienated from his family, another relative, and now my nephew.<\/span><\/p>\n Fortunately we have a priest who is a family friend; he grew up with my mother, and then presided at her funeral. He is dignified.<\/span><\/p>\n At many funerals I feel more anger than grief. Some priests try to lighten the occasion by telling jokes. Even worse, eulogies give someone the opportunity to those who finally have a captive audience, and go on at length about how funny the deceased was when he was drunk, and boy he had an eye for the girls, etc. I try to make the service recognizably Christian, and I think music is the best way to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n At my nephew\u2019s funeral the choir sang I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say<\/em>, The King of Love My Shepherd Is<\/em>, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree<\/em>, the In Paradisum<\/em>, and Jerusalem My Happy Home<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/span>This fruit does make my soul to thrive,\u00a0It keeps my dying faith alive<\/p>\n This fruit does make my soul to thrive, <\/span><\/span>It keeps my dying faith alive<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Which makes my soul in haste to be, <\/span><\/span>With Jesus Christ the apple tree. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/span>What other comfort have we but that the Good Shepherd will not leave us in darkness.<\/p>\n Perverse and foolish oft I strayed<\/p>\n But yet in love He sought me<\/span><\/p>\n And on His shoulder gently laid<\/span><\/p>\n And home rejoicing brought me.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/p>\n And He will wipe away the tears from every eye.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Jerusalem, my happy home, God grant that I may see<\/span><\/p>\n Thine endless joys and of the same partaker ever be.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n At the conclusion of the burial service the priest took dirt from the grave and made the sign of the cross on the coffin, saying<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI seal this grave until the day of the resurrection,\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/p>\n when, I pray, we will all meet again, never more to part.<\/span><\/p>\n Death still stings, even for a Christian. My nephew died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 40, and I had to make all the arrangements. I\u2019ve had too much practice doing so; I think this is the fifth person I have buried: my parents to start, then an impoverished acquaintance who was alienated from his family, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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