finding a place of beauty at the time of death
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Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
“…for seven weeks I’ve lived in here,Penned up inside this ghetto.But I have found what I love here.The dandelions call to meAnd the white chestnut branches in the court.Only I never saw another butterfly.”
Pavel Friedmann
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Why do some see or find beauty in difficult situations and others seem unable to comprehend the beauty?
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Why do some look beyond the grief and see the love that is
present in such grief?
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Spirituality evokes theholy and can only be described
by those that can see it as a place of beauty.
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Beauty beckons to the observer if she/he can see it!
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
However we describe beauty today, I am sure thatbeauty must have
something to do with God!
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Therefore, the demise ofbeauty at anytime must
be equated withan unawareness of God…
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Therefore, the demise ofbeauty at anytime must
be equated withan unawareness of God,
because of sin, pain, or ugliness!
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
So by attempting to define beauty, we are attempting to find
where God is,where He has been,
and/or what He is doing!
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
If one can develop a working definition of beauty, and if
beauty is a thing of God, then one can look for it, even in the
most difficult time of death!
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
While I may be unable to fully define or quantify beauty, I will postulate that we can do so to
the extent it will provide us with tools during difficult times.
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
My definition draws heavily from two deceased Christian mystics and their Old Testament
understanding of beauty.
John O’Donohue, a 20th Century Celtic Philosopher
Jonathan Edwards, a 19th Century Theologian/Writer
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
My definition…
One has to have a sense of beauty or, we might say, one
has to experience God's beauty for oneself.
Edwards
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
My definition…
“[One] does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has a sense of the gloriousness of
God in his heart.” Edwards
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
My definition…
Beauty “…begins and ends with God …an extraordinary vision of
the divine Beauty replicating itself in all of creation.”
Edwards
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
My definition…
“God is Beauty!” O’Donohue
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
My definition…
Beauty is a “…sense of the divine being and character, as well as the
works of God, and to define beauty in terms of the excellence and
glory of God.” Moore
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
My definition…
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord…”
Psalms 27:4
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
My definition…
“God is God,and distinguished from allother beings and exaltedabove them, chiefly by
His divine beauty.” Edwards
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
A Practical Side Step…
The aura of beauty that is experienced at death is that
remaining connection from those previous moment(s) of love where
real beauty was found.
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
A Practical Side Step…
Consider…Hymns
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
A Practical Side Step…
Consider…Hymns
Scriptures
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
A Practical Side Step…
Consider…Hymns
ScripturesPrayers
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
A Practical Side Step…
It is the minister’s job at the time of death to provide the vehicle, trigger the aura, or hold up the
mirror that allows/helps the dying to find such a place of beauty.
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
A Practical Side Step…
“It is the duty of the contemplative to give beauty away so that the rest of
the world may, in the midst of squalor, ugliness, and pain, remember that
beauty is possible .”Chittister
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
The chaplain’s job is simple: hold upa mirror in which to reflect God’s
image, create a space to see those holy moments of beauty that already exist, and
share the inclination of humanity as it bends towards beauty as a
plant towards sunlight.
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
An Old Testament Definition…
All OT writersrelate the idea of all beauty with the beauty of God.
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
An Old Testament Definition…
“…behold the beauty of the Lord…”Psalms 27:4
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
An Old Testament Definition…
“Out of Zion,the perfection of beauty,
God hath shined.”Psalms 50:2
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
An Old Testament Definition…
“…worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”
Psalms 29:2
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
An Old Testament Definition…
“But thou art holy,thou that inhabits the
praises of Israel.”Psalms 22:3
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
An Old Testament Definition…
Not only does a God that is beauty inhabit people… but His very
creation is created in His image and it was good!
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
An Old Testament Definition…
“The whole of creation, functioning according to its intended purposes, in harmony and fruitfulness, is said
to be beautiful.” Moore
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
An Old Testament Definition…
The beauty of the Lord our God is upon His creation and has
established that His ongoing creative work is beautiful!
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
An Old Testament Definition…
“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou
the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands
establish thou it.” Psalms 90:17
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Definition:
God is beauty;His holy creation is beauty; and
His creation has become co-creators in His ongoing work.
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
God is Beauty
Their On-going Co-creation is
Beauty
His Creation is Beauty
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Where is this beauty when the sometimes-horrific realities of
life are present?
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
“…the demise of beauty is the result of the loss of regard for God,
then the hope for a recovery of beauty is somehow linked with restoration of respect for God.”
Moore
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
A “…persistent longing for beauty can serve as a starting-point…”
or a place of awakening “…a true sense of beauty in this age of
ugliness and death.”Moore
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
A “…persistent longing for beauty can serve as a starting-point…”
or a place of awakening “…a true sense of beauty in this age of
ugliness and death.”Moore
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
The chaplain’s job is simple: hold upa mirror in which to reflect God’s
image, create a space to see those holy moments of beauty that already exist, and
share the inclination of humanity as it bends towards beauty as a
plant towards sunlight.
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Genesis 1:27
God created human beings;he created them godlike,Reflecting God’s nature.
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
When I look into theface of the dyingI am looking intothe face of God!
Finding a Place of Beauty
Providing Pastoral Care at the time of Death
Definition:
For a complete workup of my definition of beauty, see my blog…
deathministry.blogspot.com