Memento Mori Part 2: some bad news about death, the really good news about how we should live, and how to prepare well for both.

I’ll stop talking about death soon, I promise…

For Part 1…check it out here.

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For me, stories are easy to tell.

When I start writing, you can usually find me in a local coffee shop, my extra hot flat white in hand. As I open my laptop and stare at the blank page in front of me, the images in my head always begin to swirl…images of times I’ve journeyed through different circumstances and instances in life.

And those images form words because I want to connect our stories, yours and mine.

I want to connect them because getting to heaven isn’t easy. And the things God allows (causes) in your life and mine are the real life stepping stones to getting there. He uses the beautiful moments and good times, He uses the sufferings and even sin to make up the individual narrow ways we each journey on to Him.

And our stories encourage each other to keep going, keep hoping, keep running the race so we can all win heaven.

My unique perspective on death and life and all that comes with it.

As a widowed Traditional Catholic woman, have a unique perspective. I hold my story - my body and soul and all my experiences - in the light of walking my spouse to and through his death.

I hold my soul as I live in the wake of that time…as I read what the Catholic Church says, what Theologians say, what the early Church Fathers say, what the Saints say, and what the Bible says about making it to heaven. I hold my late husband’s soul, I hold Alex’s soul, our kids’s souls, and your soul, too.

I hold them tight because our current world, our current Church (the Catholic Church included) ignores the perils to our salvation.

And as I sit here in said coffee shop, I recall my 42 years of life thus far. And I think of the beautiful moments I’ve lived but I also think of all the suffering. Oh, so much suffering. Suffering that brought me to my literal knees, suffering that made me angry, purified, compliant, and now magnified in what I believe.

For I believe that everything God orchestrated (and will orchestrate) in my life - from the death of my spouse to my own personal trials - is for my salvation. And He would have caused or allowed none of it if it didn’t have that one purpose: my salvation. I mean, suffering has no meaning outside of this point. Suffering would be utterly useless if it didn’t have merit.

In similar fashion, beauty and good things would also be useless - for these are meant as windows, foreshadowings, and consolations to make us long for heaven even more…

For you, I have bad news and really good news.

In this particular letter, however, stories won’t be enough.

This is a convicting letter, a letter of truth. A letter I perhaps don’t want to write because I don’t want to be the bad guy. But I’m not the bad guy - I’m just a messenger…so don’t shoot me lol.

Because the news I have to tell you is something many of us either don’t believe or we shove it under the proverbial rug - each of these choices the impetus of our downfall…for all of eternity.

But take heart…because I also have good news. News that will transform how you view every moment of your life - changing your life from regular old circumstances and situations to moments that can determine how well you will spend your forever days.

And after all that news, I want to share some live-giving ways that I practice my death and prepare those I love for the same fate - including how I can ensure people I have never even met can make it to heaven, too.

So come with me on this journey today as we traverse death and the afterlife, as we take action (in normal every day life) to prepare for that day of days where we meet God. And let’s close out this month of the liturgical year, of Memento Mori, with a bang…