Glimpses Through The Wall

Taking a break from commentary on the great “Out There” ; just a few asides about me.

I have been busy the past couple days with the funeral and wake of someone I cared alot about, but someone whom I’ve not had much contact with in recent years. She gave meaning to the idea of what an impact a SAHM can have, a woman whose life centered most definitely upon her family.

She died full of years, and with many good memories. My thoughts were that as more of that generation are passing from this world, we are now the generation of elders. That is a strange thought. We will soon be the resident emeritus, to pass on encouragements and hopefully wisdom of our experience.

It was a Latin High Mass in the morning. Helpful booklets were passed out so we could follow along…. the last time I attended a high mass for a funeral might have been when her husband passed away some years ago, but the one I best recalled was before that, my own paternal grandmother. I don’t think that was in Latin however, but it had the same service and the things that you never see with Protestant funerals: sprinkling the casket ( in the church) with holy water and the circling with the censer and the smell of the incense rising. The chants of the priest and choir were quite beautiful, and her grandson-in-law played the plaintive pipes in full piper regalia. It was a peaceful requiem.

That was all of the morning, and all of the afternoon was a wake at a most hospitable household. It wasn’t a raucous reunion because of the circumstance, but its atmosphere was full of happy sentiments of memory. In a way, a wake awakens you, to go on in life with appreciation of each other and of the experience that yet lays ahead. It transitions, with a dignified place made for the departed and a continuing of their link in the chain of life.

For we must all pass this life at some time, and we will leave behind our efforts whether for good or not. It is something like the word for today:

caesura sih-ZHUR-uh; -ZUR-, noun;
plural caesuras or caesurae sih-ZHUR-ee; -ZUR-ee:

1. A break or pause in a line of verse, usually occurring in the middle of a line, and indicated in scanning by a double vertical line; for example, “The proper study || of mankind is man” [Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man].
2. Any break, pause, or interruption.

Caesura comes from Latin caesura, “a cutting off, a division, a stop,” from the past participle of caedere, “to cut.”

I had never come across that word before. It is similar to the meaning of the Bible term, Selah, which you find in the Psalms. A pause in the middle. That is all that death is…..

5 thoughts on “Glimpses Through The Wall”

  1. A “Latin High Mass” brings back vivid memories of my youth as an altar boy and the joy I took in the grandeur and solemnity of the Catholic High Mass. Most parishes in the country have forsaken Latin and I miss it. That said, my sympathies to you on the loss of your friend, Ilona.

  2. The world is pooer without her that is for sure.

    Your thoughts are the same as those of some of her children… the mass said in that way was something they had as children, others had a difficult time following it- more than me ( I just looked for the place of the bells, etc. and once you found your place you could look across the page and read it in English).

    There are things that unite all Christians, and the hope we have in Christ overcoming death and giving rest to our souls…. this is a deep and wonderful truth for us. Kyrie Eleison throughout the languages and the faith and all time.

  3. Ilona, I am very sorry for the loss of your friend. I know exactly what you mean about realizing about now being the elder generation. Here’s hoping that those who have to step into that gap of human wisdom that’s growing wider and wider every day will be able to meet the challenge.

    As for being a SAHM, I don’t know that the country wasn’t a better place when there were many more of them than now. For those most part, such women lead incredibly busy lives and they use their time to fill the gaps in other people’s needs. Taking care of the old and the sick – making life work.

    It is a harder and a colder world now that so few women have the time to do that work. We depend on social workers and paid caregivers now to do what the women of the community used to do. In the process they knit us all together.

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