This March, a brand new discipleship series is launching for the entire parish. Dying with Christ – Living with Hope gives participants a clear idea of the Christian view of death and what we can do to accompany others during the dying process. Since death is inevitable, this resource, produced by the Christian Medical and Dental Association of Canada (CMDA Canada), provides participants with the means to discuss death with loved ones and to support others. 

This video series was filmed in Canada and takes our unique experience as Canadians into account. It features three palliative care doctors, a palliative care nurse, the theologian in residence from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, and local Catholic theologian and professor at the Atlantic School of Theology, Dr. David Deane. 

I was blessed to be able to work alongside the team at CMDA Canada to produce this video. The motivation to create this series came from my own experience of my mother’s death. Her testimony as a Christian was profoundly transformative for me. Before that, my experience of death had been divorced from an expression of faith in Christ, in a number of different ways. No matter how many times you’ve encountered death, a Christian death is truly something set apart. 

The difference was twofold. The first difference was how she used her dying process as an opportunity to seek Christ. Her faith was always strong, but, in many ways, I saw it get refined like gold in a fire. As a nurse working in a nursing home, she had walked with so many of her patients in their last days and approached her own death with expertise. When I should have been overwhelmed by the tragedy unfolding, I couldn’t help but see how much closer she was coming to Jesus. Through the final years of her life, she gave a master class on dying in Christ. She was able to approach her death with such beautiful faith because she had spent her whole life preparing for that moment by cultivating a relationship with Christ and building up spiritual virtues. 

The second difference came in my experience of community during that season. Both my household and my mother’s household were blessed to be connected to Saint Benedict Parish. There was no need we had that God didn’t fulfil through the care provided by our parish. The Dying with Christ – Living with Hope Series echoes that experience by reminding us of our duty to care for one another. That care can be medical, spiritual, or practical. As a church, we can support families and individuals going through the dying process through prayer, accompaniment, and listening and through acts of kindness like preparing meals, offering respite care, offering help around the house, and providing financial support for unexpected expenses. 

No matter how young or how old you are, this series offers a starting point to think about what it means to die as a Christian, and how we can help others going through the dying process. I hope you’ll join us on March 12th, 19th, and 26th for this new series!

Visit saintbenedict.ca/dyingwithchrist to register.