Memory Eternal!

With the Saints, give rest, O Christ, to the souls of thy servants, where there is neither sickness nor sorrow, but life everlasting. Thou alone art immortal, Who didst create and fashion man; but we mortals were formed of earth, and unto earth shall we return, as Thou Who madest me didst command and say unto me; For earth thou art and unto earth shalt thou return, whither all we mortals are going, making as a funeral dirge the song: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

My mother's anniversary falls on the 13th of June. Some of you who used to know this blog when it was the Sarisburium blog, may remember my posts a couple of years ago, when I learnt that her death had in fact been suicide. Because she was cremated and her ashes were sprinkled, there is no place that I can visit so I began the tradition in my Anglican days of marking my mother's anniversary each year with a requiem mass. However, this has become an even more poignant time of year for me now that I know the truth behind the scene that I found all those years ago as a child. Many questions have been resolved but many more difficulties have surfaced. My friends and my fellow Christians have been a great help.

The discovery led me, at the end of 2007, to search for my father, whom I had never met as he had left when he learnt that my mother was pregnant. Due to the wonders of Facebook combined with an unusual surname, it took no more than a fortnight for me to track down relatives. While I have gained a brother, and aunts and uncles as a result of this, I learnt that my father had died only months earlier.

On my mother's anniversary, I plan to offer a private reader-service pannykhida in memory of them both. While I know that it will be a week after the soul sabbath, and many of you will already have had your loved ones commemorated then, I would be happy to add to my list the names of anybody else for whom you wish prayers to be offered.

Please would you also pray for me? These discoveries are still quite recent for me and I still carry a fair amount of baggage. June is a difficult time as a result. Thank you.

Just add any names in a comment on this post and I shall remember them.

O God of spirits and of all flesh, Who hast trampled down death and overthrown the devil, and given life to thy world: do Thou Thyself, O Lord, give rest to the souls of thy departed servant, Patrick, and handmaid, Stella, in a place of light, a place of green pasture, a place of repose, whence all sickness, sorrow, and sighing are fled away. Pardon every sin committed by them in word, deed, or thought, in that Thou art a good God, and the Lover of mankind; for there is no man that liveth and sinneth not, for Thou alone art without sin, thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy word is Truth. For Thou art the resurrection, and the life, and the repose of thy departed servant, Patrick, and handmaid, Stella, O Christ our God, and unto Thee do we send up glory, together with thine unoriginate Father, and thy most holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.