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For Christians, the Season of Lent offers a certain wisdom—that death is understood not merely as an event that occurs at the end of life, but also as an ever-present character in the story of our lives. Death is a mystery to be contemplated while we live, and always by the light of resurrection hope. This important “life planning” work is holy work to which we are all called. There are three ways I want to invite you into this year:
- Planning your funeral
- Reviewing and updating (or creating) your will and estate plan
- End-of-life decisions (advance directives)
The order of these three is intended to be in reverse chronology. First, funeral planning. For several years now, I’ve made an annual appeal at the beginning of Lent for each adult at Saint Mark’s, regardless of your age, to undertake the work of planning your own funeral. Many of you have done so already: bless you… and this year take time this Lent to dust off your plan, review and update it if needed. If you’ve not yet taken this work on, I encourage you to include this work this year in your observance of a holy Lent. It is sacred work. Please reach out if you need guidance—Canon Rich, Canon Emily and I are glad to engage with you in this process or address any questions you may have.
Here are the documents that will serve as resources for you:
These documents are also available at saintmarks.org/funeral. Ideally, you would complete this planning form (or as much as you’d like to complete) and provide a copy to the Dean’s office, where it will be kept on file, and held in confidence, until the time it is needed (hopefully a long time from now!) Of course, you can retrieve it, amend it, or replace it at any time (and many of us do).
Secondly, I want to once again broaden this invitation to include preparation (or review) of your will. Only one-third of Americans have a will when they die, making it especially difficult for their loved ones trying to work through probate. It is never too soon to give thought to that part of end-of-life planning, including provision for heirs and designating legacy gifts for charitable agencies to which you are committed. Again, Lent is a particularly poignant time to undertake this work, or to conduct an annual review of your estate documents. Kathy and I will take time this Lent to review our funeral plans and wills again this Lent as a spiritual practice that evokes gratitude—for the blessings in our lives, for our children, and for Saint Mark’s and other organizations we want to support with planned gifts.
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