I spent last week on Retreat at a Trappist Abbey in Kentucky. It is impossible to enter or exit the abbey church or guest house without walking through the cemetery. It struck me, with the Bible readings at Mass today foretelling the end time, as a way of getting us ready for next week's celebration of Christ the King, that walking into the abbey church was itself a rehearsal for death. As I stared a little longer at the graves, it occurred to me that living each day is a little rehearsal for death. We wake from darkness and unknowing, walk a few hours in the light, and when darkness comes upon us at night we fall back into slumber, not knowing what awaits us in dreams. We have only a limited number of these rehearsals until the real thing comes our way. May we live each day wisely and with prayerful awareness of God's good grace carrying us, prompting us, healing us. One day the most glorious dawn will break, the true light will come, and we shall see God not in grace alone but face to face. So, Lord, help me to make today's rehearsal a little better than yesterday's.

November 18, 2012

Msgr. William J. King