Meditations on Death - Preparing for Eternity - Fr. Robert Nixon
Episode description
Memento Mori. Latin phrases have a way of tickling our intellect, even when we perhaps do not fully understand them. A short phrase like Memento Mori let's us know that latin can accomplish much with two words. The short phrase translates to "Remember Death", or another translation also suggests this overall thought; "that a person remember that he will one day die. One day our earthly end will have arrived and it is good to remember the one inevitable, unavoidable fact that death awaits every one of us. We will all have our last our, our last breath and our last heartbeat.
Meditations on death are an important part of living.The book "Imitation of Christ", attributed to Thomas A Kempis, is the most read book on earth after the Holy Bible and now we have a new volume by the same author, translated for the first time into English by Father Robert Nixon, Director at the New Norcia Institute for Benedictine Studies Western Australia.
Death might seem like a macabre topic to start a new year, but the book, Meditations on Death, Preparing for Eternity, instead brings us to an appreciation of life with a healthy respect for it's fragility and helps us ponder and reflect on our use of the precious gift of life that God has given us.
Death can be seen as a doorway to eternity and the beginning of our eternal existence.
Joining me to discuss this work is the translator of the Latin text, Fr. Robert Nixon.