THE HOLY ART OF DYING: PART III
The author would like to dedicate this series to the blessed memory of
Sigurd Lee (1926-2021), mentor, encourager, and dear friend.
The Holy Art of Dying Part III:
ARS MORIENDI (The Art of Dying)
by REV. JACOB KEMPFERT, Contributing Writer GLORIA DEI LUTHERAN CHURCH, Saginaw, Mich.
In my younger and more vulnerable years, the old-timers gave me some good advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Ars Moriendi, Ars Vivendi,” they said, which means, “The art of dying is the art of living.” This deceptively simple phrase conceals many deep and abiding truths. And I suspect fresh lessons yet await me. THE LUTHERAN SENTINEL
As a young man, I took it to mean the art of dying is the art of living; that is, to truly live well, we must be aware that we will die. Life is best lived mindful of life’s end. Therefore, “the more alive you are, the more you’re aware of death,” as a poet friend of mine was fond of saying. But now, as I slouch ever nearer into middle-age, this advice has also begun to mean something else: the art of dying is the art of living; that is, living and dying well is not a given, but a craft, a cultivation of one’s soul, a truly blessed art.
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