On the Nightstand: Remember Your Death/Memento Mori Journal

It probably seems morbid to select a title like this for December, the time when we’re waiting for the arrival of the Christ Child and surrounding ourselves with love and joy. And yet, as Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble notes, this is a practice that has been encouraged for centuries.

“We remember our death in order that our lives may be filled with the Life of Christ, both now and when we enter into the joy of eternal life,” she writes. “… (T)he practice of memento mori is more about living than it is about dying.” Every page of the journal has a quote from scripture, a saint or writer, or from Sister herself.

Personally, I’ll be using it as a place to record my nightly examen; next year, there will be a companion devotional, and Whitney Hopler‘s interview with Sister about that will be on my web site in late February.

By Melanie

Melanie Rigney is the author of Radical Saints: 21 Women for the 21st Century and other Catholic books. She is a contributor to Living Faith and other Catholic blogs. She lives in Arlington, Virginia. Melanie also owns Editor for You, a publishing consultancy that since 2003 has helped hundreds of writers, publishers, and agents.

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