How do you feel about your own death?

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Teresa9

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Dear friends

Now this could be seen as a morbid subject, but in this case it isn’t!!🙂 . If someone has recently lost someone I offer my condolences and prayers and apologise if this post has caused painful memories. In my life I have lost alot of people close to me and I honestly believe that up until the last hours or days people do not ponder their own death in detail. Personally I think we should do this (not the how or where’s of dying) but the fact of dying and is our life in order as we do not KNOW the hour.

As my faith has deepened (I’m perfectly healthy by the way so no imminent reason for my death…thank God) I have reflected on living, dying and the afterlife.

I would love to hear your reflections on this if you feel able to post them as often death is a taboo and difficult subject to reflect upon, though we do reflect on Jesus’ death.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
I agree we should ponder our own death, as it is the one thing certain.
Doing it is another matter.
 
Many people will say that they are not afraid of death. I suppose I fall into the same category, by which I mean that though I don’t particularly look forward to the event, the consequences of death itself do not bother me. I’m a faithful Catholic, to the best of my abilities, and contrary to what our separated brethren think, we can be confident in our salvation. I believe that I am running the race well, though I could always do better, and so long as I try to do better every day, my death will be a joyous occasion in Heaven.
 
The question I ask myself is this? If my Lord was to come and take me home in the next second am I ready. What is my relationship with my Lord and is there any sin in my life. I pray when that does happen I am in the state of grace. 👍
 
I do contemplate death and the afterlife. For some reason, my dreams often wander to visions of end time situations. While I too have some comfort because of faith and hope in the promises of Christ, I must admit I fear death. Mostly I fear not being ready from the aspect of holiness. I think of gifts not used for good, abuses of other gifts God has given me, wondering if I have listened to God’s call in what He wants me to do with my life, etc.

I do long to be holy, but I’m not there yet. I am better now than I have been in the past (sinning less and praying more). But I need more time to grow in holiness.

I am a bit uneasy thinking about how I love God. What does that mean exactly? I am in awe of His greatness and especially His endless love and mercy toward me, but my spiritual life has been work so far. I feel like I love Him for what He does and has done for me, which seems pretty one-sided.

When I think of spending eternity in Heaven, of course I want that (especially considering the alternative), but do I long to be in God’s presence? I’m afraid I don’t know, perhaps because I do not often sense His presence. It is unfamiliar to me. When I think of longing to be with someone, I think of my kids. I can’t wait to get home from work and give a hug and kiss and just be with them. I hope others will not judge me for this (I feel odd even saying this), but I don’t think I feel that same longing for God yet. Something to pray about…so I need more time.
 
I also do not want the event to come, but I have started to be more cognizant of my spiritual state and more dependant upon regular confession and daily mass.

I have also become more aware of the Holy Souls in Purgatory and the need to help them out through prayer and fasting– realizing fully well that I may be there gratefully accepting prayers some day.
 
Chris W:
I do contemplate death and the afterlife. For some reason, my dreams often wander to visions of end time situations. While I too have some comfort because of faith and hope in the promises of Christ, I must admit I fear death. Mostly I fear not being ready from the aspect of holiness. I think of gifts not used for good, abuses of other gifts God has given me, wondering if I have listened to God’s call in what He wants me to do with my life, etc.

I do long to be holy, but I’m not there yet. I am better now than I have been in the past (sinning less and praying more). But I need more time to grow in holiness.

I am a bit uneasy thinking about how I love God. What does that mean exactly? I am in awe of His greatness and especially His endless love and mercy toward me, but my spiritual life has been work so far. I feel like I love Him for what He does and has done for me, which seems pretty one-sided.

When I think of spending eternity in Heaven, of course I want that (especially considering the alternative), but do I long to be in God’s presence? I’m afraid I don’t know, perhaps because I do not often sense His presence. It is unfamiliar to me. When I think of longing to be with someone, I think of my kids. I can’t wait to get home from work and give a hug and kiss and just be with them. I hope others will not judge me for this (I feel odd even saying this), but I don’t think I feel that same longing for God yet. Something to pray about…so I need more time.
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Chris, God is in you.Pray that His presence will just draw you into His loving arms and fill you with His Love. If you love Me obey me. 👍
 
I am of an age [near 70] when I realize that it is approaching more rapidly than I formerly thought. Sort of Ready-or-not here it comes.

I had an incident earlier this year where I was adown the church Aisle one moment and the next the paramedics were assuring me that I was all right. [Imbalance in my medications.] Somewhat later it occurred to me that next time I might not wake up here.

Interestingly enough, at the time there was no time to think before I went down and even after I came to I was more interested in determining what was working than in prayer.

It reminded me to be ready at all times.
 
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SPOKENWORD:
Chris, God is in you.Pray that His presence will just draw you into His loving arms and fill you with His Love. If you love Me obey me. 👍
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“If you love Me, obey me”. That’s where I question how to truely love God. I do obey Him (as much as I can) and I confess my sins, etc. So I do have confidence in my salvation. But I wonder if my love should be more than just obeying Him, trying not to offend him or abuse the mercy He gives, expressing gratitude for His love, even trying to lead others to God. I do those things, but I don’t really experience a longing to be in His presence. At the same time, I do dread separation from Him (and I have experienced that emptiness). I just fear that I love Him for my sake, which seems like a selfish love.

I’m not sure if I’m making sense, here.

Interesting topic for a thread :o
 
If lucky, after I die I probably need to go to Purgatory first. I donot relish that thought.

Theodora
 
Chris W said:
“If you love Me, obey me”. That’s where I question how to truely love God. I do obey Him (as much as I can) and I confess my sins, etc. So I do have confidence in my salvation. But I wonder if my love should be more than just obeying Him, trying not to offend him or abuse the mercy He gives, expressing gratitude for His love, even trying to lead others to God. I do those things, but I don’t really experience a longing to be in His presence. At the same time, I do dread separation from Him (and I have experienced that emptiness). I just fear that I love Him for my sake, which seems like a selfish love.

I’m not sure if I’m making sense, here.

Interesting topic for a thread :o
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Be sure of one thing and that is that God loves you very much. How much time do you spend with your loving Father? A relationship requires spending alot of time together. Remember Gods love is unconditional. Our love is conditional and that is for us to love God with all our heart and soul. The closer you get, the more you will come into His presence. 👍
 
I was afraid to die until I lost my first husband…

I can’t quite put it into words, but that’s when total reality hit!!
I think we all at some point have the idea that we are going to live forever…
As I have grown deeper in my walk with the Lord, my fears are much less because I hope to be with Him someday…gazing upon Him face-to-face. I guess I’m ready whenever! But not yet!!! I want to enjoy that new little grandchild who is taking his/her sweet time getting here…🙂
 
Death is one thing that we will all have to face but thinking about our own personal death can cause some aprehension. Like will I go through a lot of pain first and will I be in a state of grace at the time.
Sometimes I wonder why we couldn’t all be baptised and die soon enough after as to go strait to heaven? When I was 7 I had a near death experiance from falling out of a boat in a flood. I was under long, about a half an hour. My soul left my body and I could see the world with spiritual eyes. Everything alive gives off the most beautiful light through the eyes of the Spirit. I was very near the intense white light of the next world when I heard a voice tell me I was going back. Leaving my body was bad enough but going back and feeling all that pain again being revieved was worse. I think the worse part of leaving was to me at the tender age of 7, not seeing what was at the end of the white light. When I was 46 I was given the pleasure of seeing what the light was, Jesus. One night when praying I saw a porthole of heaven open before me and from the light a voice said “So that you know who I am” and with a single touch He turned my world upside down. I was not blinded as was Paul on the road to Damascus but to expain what the touch of Jesus is like would take more time and energy than anyone could express. I think that is why John ended his Gospel with “I think the whole world could not contain the books that should be written”. For those who have had this experiance no expaination is neccesary and for the rest no expaination would be good enough.
Some times I wonder why I was sent back at the age of 7 or even why He has shown me what He has so far. Paul said it this way “We see dimly now as through a glass and what we are to become is not certain, but this we do know, that when Christ our hope shall appear we shall appear and we shall be like Him”. God Bless
 
Death is a transition point, from a life on this testing ground to life in our eternal destinations (maybe with a pitstop at purgatory to clean up first). It should be a natural event in all human lives and will be a shock to many and relief to some.
 
Still blessed at having my octogenarian parents around and fairly functional (though for how much longer, God alone knows) kind of distracts me from considering my own. Throw in two school aged kids that I’d like to see to adulthood, and in truth, I’m not ready to pass on. On the other hand, I do give thought to the accounting I’ll have to give should the day come sooner than I’d like.
 
Want to hang around here as long as I’m able to do for myself. I would rather have a terminal illness with 12-24 months notice than “wake up dead” so that family can prepare .

I don’t want to leave young kids, that would be the worst. I’d like for them to be old enough to accept it.

Not too thrilled about my wife being married again either. With any luck, she’ll go before I do.

I’m pretty sure I’ve got to do time in purgatory too. Can I open a “prayer account” now?
 
Dear All

Thank you for your posts so far, it is something we all think about on a surface level and for others on a deeper level.

In as much as death is inevitable a certainty of life as is birth, what happens inbetween determines the afterlife and this is the greatest souce of my ponderings, what I have done in the past and how now my faith has deepened, how I can rectify things and make sure I do not repeat the past so to speak. Of course there is confession, but I recently read a piece on purgatory and first judgement at death and final judgment at the end of time…wow did I get worried!!!

What worried me most is I can bear the guilt of my sins and am willing to be cleansed of them in purgatory, though don’t exactly look forward to that, but I figure it is the least I deserve, what was the real problem for me was that all of our sins are made open for all to see at the final judgement, we will know ALL the sins of each other…now that is a worry and enough to stop me sinning AS OF NOW!! if God would grace me with graces to do that!! Now I know God knows all my sins and sees them in their darkness, but God is merciful, God is love and I trust Him completely.

To be honest I don’t care how the dying comes or where because I know I will be going home to Jesus and hopefully He’ll have me in heaven once I have been cleansed of my sins…hopefully!! What worried me was that as the church said, all sins are a sin against God, the self, each other, the church, society, the whole of humanity and the world and as such, this is pretty serious, infact frighteningly so, especially when everyone will know each others sins…all I can console myself with is this…I will be in the company of other sinners and God is mercy and love. Now I am not getting an attack of the scruples, far from it, but when you really look at what life is here and what it should be a natural progression of to the next life, all I can say is this…

Get busy making yourself a good, selfless, loving and obedient child of God by His grace.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
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Teresa9:
Dear All

Thank you for your posts so far, it is something we all think about on a surface level and for others on a deeper level.

In as much as death is inevitable a certainty of life as is birth, what happens inbetween determines the afterlife and this is the greatest souce of my ponderings, what I have done in the past and how now my faith has deepened, how I can rectify things and make sure I do not repeat the past so to speak. Of course there is confession, but I recently read a piece on purgatory and first judgement at death and final judgment at the end of time…wow did I get worried!!!

What worried me most is I can bear the guilt of my sins and am willing to be cleansed of them in purgatory, though don’t exactly look forward to that, but I figure it is the least I deserve, what was the real problem for me was that all of our sins are made open for all to see at the final judgement, we will know ALL the sins of each other…now that is a worry and enough to stop me sinning AS OF NOW!! if God would grace me with graces to do that!! Now I know God knows all my sins and sees them in their darkness, but God is merciful, God is love and I trust Him completely.

To be honest I don’t care how the dying comes or where because I know I will be going home to Jesus and hopefully He’ll have me in heaven once I have been cleansed of my sins…hopefully!! What worried me was that as the church said, all sins are a sin against God, the self, each other, the church, society, the whole of humanity and the world and as such, this is pretty serious, infact frighteningly so, especially when everyone will know each others sins…all I can console myself with is this…I will be in the company of other sinners and God is mercy and love. Now I am not getting an attack of the scruples, far from it, but when you really look at what life is here and what it should be a natural progression of to the next life, all I can say is this…

Get busy making yourself a good, selfless, loving and obedient child of God by His grace.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
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I love coming out of the confessional. I can still remember being little and walking home after receiving absolution, thinking hopefully, “Maybe I’ll be hit by a car and go straight to heaven.”

Nowadays, when I come out of the confessional I like to think of Abraham’s response in Genesis 22:1:* “God called, ‘Abraham!’” ‘Ready!’ he replied." *Of course after that Abraham was tested. Prefer not to think about that. Instead, I like to think of the revelation supposedly given by our Lord to St. Gertrude the Great. She said for each Mass at which we assist with devotion, Our Lord sends a saint to comfort us at death. I actually tried counting last week. I started going to daily mass when I was 19 years old. The closest I could figure was lots and lots. Hope God remembers better than me the Masses, and forgets my sins, all nailed to His Cross, putting them as far from me as east is from west; hiding them in a cloud, burying them in the sea, and blotting out the charges proved against me, remembering only that I have already passed from death to Life. So much for death’s sting!

Of course, I’m relying on God’s mercy for all of this (and making the 9 First Fridays again, which includes this morning. One more First Friday can’t hurt!) This sounds terribly Catholic to me, but I’m a nurse I know Catholics tend to die well.
 
I also meant to add that I hope and pray I am blessed to receive the Sacrament of the sick/last rites before I die. Infact I pray all Catholics can.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
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