A church community in Duncan, B.C., inspired its members during an adult faith formation series on suffering, dying, and the Passion. (Submitted photo)
Now is the time to learn about medically assisted suicide and euthanasia, and how to advocate for a culture of life and a good death.
Award-winning author Sister Nuala Kenny, SC(H), challenged Catholics in Victoria to respond to this social and moral issue at an event at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Victoria last fall.
Just before Lent, St. Edward’s Parish in Duncan answered her call with a series of adult faith formation sessions guided by Sister Kenny’s book Rediscovering the Art of Dying which looks at how can die a good death and the issues of suffering, death, and medically assisted death and euthanasia. With 33 people registered, it was the best-attended series at the parish in years.
Our journey built a loving awareness through personal
sharing and a reflection on the Passion of Christ. It had a significant impact
on many individuals, and allowed the community to explore sensitive issues and stories
of illness, suffering, healing, faith, and hope. Some stories shared were still
raw with emotion as people struggled to resolve their own grief.
We studied ourselves in the light of Christ’s Passion, shining God’s mercy on our own suffering and death experiences. It gave us the strength to see true compassion is not ending self-declared suffering through medically assisted death, but by entering the suffering around us and being a loving presence to others.
Weekly, we reviewed the theology of Christ’s Passion and case studies from each of Sister Kenny’s chapters. Sometimes, this brought out stories from participants who worked or still work in health care. No one seemed immune from being able to identify with the issues in the book.
We began each session with prayer and Scripture, and occasionally used guided imagery reflections to help us. One evening, we sang a Taize chant based on the Good Friday hymn, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
When the sessions were over, we entered Lent with a different perspective of what prayer, fasting and giving of ourselves meant in preparation for Easter. During some Stations of the Cross devotions at St. Edward’s, we used the Stations Sister Kenny had written in her book. It was truly a new way to experience the Stations and to see Christ’s Passion in a personal way.
It gave many a renewed sense of what the Resurrection means today in Canada and in the world.
Jennings is an adult faith formation facilitator at St. Edward the Confessor Parish in Duncan, B.C.