We all know that we are going to die. Most of us don’t like to contemplate that fact too often but facing a pandemic the past year has certainly brought impending death to mind more often than it might usually be. In addition, Lent is a liturgical season designed to make us contemplate our mortality. Like it or not, this life will come to an end.
Emily DeArdo has lived with death looming most of her life. She was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 11. This disease affects the way the body maintains the proper balance of salt and water, damaging the lungs, pancreas, and other organs. The average life span is 33 years. Thanks to a double lung transplant 14 years ago, DeArdo has exceeded that average. During her life, she has learned a great deal about how to face death. In the pages of Living Momento Mori: My Journey through theStations of the Cross, she shares her hard-earned wisdom, connecting it to Jesus’ passion and death.
Memento Mori is Latin for “remember your death.” In the Foreword, St. Theresa Aletheia Noble, F.S.P. shares that the goal is to contemplate your mortality in order to live well. We all suffer in this world. We need to take up our daily crosses, but we can know Jesus is by our side as we suffer.
DeArdo wants us to know, however, that even in the midst of suffering (something with which she is all too familiar), “life [isn’t] doomed to be dark and terrible. Every human life, even with suffering and often because of it, can lead to joy and deeper intimacy with God.”
The 14 chapters in this book correspond to the 14 traditional Stations of the Cross. DeArdo shares her own story of suffering while reflecting on the larger truths of what it means to walk with Christ as he makes his way to Calvary. She does not sugar-coat pain but instead acknowledges the value of redemptive suffering. We can join our sufferings with Jesus. He is right there on the road with us. Each chapter includes reflection questions for personal or group conversation.
Because we are Christians, we know that suffering and death are not the end of the story. In the Afterward, DeArdo reflects on the Resurrection (which is often considered the 15th Station of the Cross). We must always keep our eyes on the prize. We believe in eternal life. “Remembering that we will die is just another way of recalling that there is a whole new kind of life beyond death.”
DeArdo’s powerful testimony and reflections on the Stations of the Cross make Living Memento Mori ideal for Lenten reading or for when you are going through a personal time of suffering regardless of liturgical season.
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