When you think of what it means to “pray like the saints,” what image comes to mind? In our Catholic faith, we have been blessed with a rich heritage of spiritual practices and prayer techniques to help us grow closer to our Lord. In this article, we’ll be looking at a specific prayer method that many might consider odd or morbid at first. It is, however, a meditative method that is filled with many graces and engages both the mind as well as the heart. I am speaking of the practice of meditating upon death, or memento mori.
It may surprise us to learn that this practice is one that has found strong advocates in some of the greatest spiritual masters of Catholic spirituality. In his Rule, St. Benedict of Nursia urged his monks to remind themselves daily of the fact that they would one day die.[1] St. Francis of Assisi referred to death in familial terms in his famous “Canticle of the Sun,” giving her the title “Sister Death.” And in the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius recommended using reflection upon death as a method for discernment.[2]
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[1] St. Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of St. Benedict in English, ed. Timothy Fry, OSB (Liturgical Press, 1982), 4.44–47 (p. 28).
[2] St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, trans. Louis J. Puhl, SJ (Newman Press, 1951), no. 186 (p. 77).
[3] See Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP, Remember Your Death, Memento Mori Lenten Devotional (Pauline Books and Media, 2019), 8–10.
Art Credit: St. Jerome Writing, Caravaggio; Wikimedia Commons.
This article originally appeared on pages 15 - 19 of the print edition.
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