Translating a World on the Edge

By Pippalou, 2015, MorgueFile.ocm

I am going to a funeral today, a Mass of Christian Burial. I am going to celebrate a life lived in a marriage that lasted over seven decades.

I am going to share in the rhythm of Mass, its recitation of prayers and rituals that echo back through the years to a little white church made of bricks, much smaller, much closer than today.

I am going with memories sliding through my thoughts like the moon passing behind the branches of pines.

I am going to a burial ground that is sacred, a spot where those who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith, await resurrection.

I am going to a hill where I’ll step near my own parents, grandparents, other relatives and friends.

I am going to the inevitable closing of life on earth to the opening of life everlasting.

I am going to a funeral today.

Be at rest once more, O my soul,

for the LORD has been good to you.

— Psalm 116:7