Thursday, May 25, 2006

A Priest's Premonition of Death?


Via Amy's Open Book, word that blogger Fr. Todd has died in an Austin, TX water boating accident. In January, Father Todd entered the following post:

So with these thoughts I have been working on my own funeral. I have my
casket picked out. You can find it at TrappistCaskets. I am going for a simple oak casket in the traditional shape rather thant he rectangular one. I am getting all the legal documents ready. I am going to prepare a letter or a video for my family. Finally I am going to prepare my liturgy in advance.
I am going to be working with my parishioners to encouarage them to think about these things as well. Here are some of the things I want to encourage them to
have.
1. A durable power of attorney (this is much better than a living will
because you can't handle ever situation with a living will. It is better to have
someone you trust to make the decisions. I will put up a sample form later of
this for download.)
2. A will (Again the state can do all sorts of weird things with your estate if you don't leave a will. It saves the family a lot of pain and suffering if this document is carefully prepared and in place)
3. A Codice to the will expressing your desires for your funeral.
4. A funeral liturgy plan ( this should be worked out in conjunction with your priest and kept on file at the parish. If your priest changes then you should review it
with your new pastor. It is important that you don't leave this step out because
you don't want to plan stuff the priest can't do or that isn't in accordance with the liturgy. If someone presented me with one of these that I hadn't seen I would try to honor it as much as possible but if I couldn't then I would have to delcline parts of it. It also is a beautiful way to speak to your family one last time through your selection of the funeral readings.)


Please remember Father Todd in your prayers.