Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Belated tears in my eyes

Last Sunday during Mass, I offered up my Holy Communion for the repose of the soul of my departed karate Sensei who passed away ten days earlier. He's on the right in the front row of the photo.

If you aren’t a Catholic, you may not understand what this means and, unfortunately, I don’t have the time to explain it right now.

Returning back to my pew, I knelt and offered more prayers for the soul of my departed dojo brother from a different mother. Here’s a non-church setting rendition by legendary musicians Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan of the post communion hymn, Just A Closer Walk With Thee, that was being sung by all in attendance:



Up until this moment, a very rational and stoic mindset had “protected” me from some of the feelings stored in my heart that were released along with belated tears in my eyes.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

2 comments:

fishhead said...

So sorry for the loss of your friend, Pierini (and Tom). My grandmother always said we should rejoice at death (I think that's in the Bible somewhere), but it is so hard. Maybe we should have big parties and celebrations when someone dies. Funerals in my family are like family reunions. Sadly, that's about the only time that we get together.

Tom said...

Life is precious, death is sad. Reunions are good.

That's my favorite hymn. Thanks for the reflection.