Pray for Cat

[Michael]

She lost her favorite aunt tonight. Her namesake. Aunt Cathy has been in the hospital since she had emergency surgery last Friday night, and tonight she went home to be with Jesus. Cat'll be okay, but if you think about her when you're praying say a prayer for her and the family.

[johnathan]

Will do. It always is hard when someone looses a loved one. Meagan and I will be praying for you guys.

[Shell]

That's hard, I'll pray for her.

[seichu kaisho]

Sure thing.

When you said Pray for Cat I thought you meant to pray for a cat. Sorry

[Petrapraise]

Expected or not, its always hard. We are thinking and praying for you guys.

[skayc1]

certainly will keep her in my prayers, it is hard to lose someone we are close to, we do have the confort of knowing they are in heaven ,if they beleived in Jesus, we still miss them though.

[charl]

I've been thinking of church fathers lately (in reference to my Dad's impending death) and what they had to say about this.

Augustine, in the Confessions book four discusses the loss of a friend. At one point he says;
Blessed is the man who loves you, and his friend in you, and his enemy because of you. He alone loses none dear to him, for they are all dear to him in one who cannot be lost. And who is this but our God, the God who made heaven and earth, and who fills them, because by filling them He created them? No one loses you but one who leaves you. And if he leaves you, where can he go, or where can he escape from you? He can only run from your kindness to your anger. For where does he not find your law in his own punishment? "And your law is the truth," and truth is You.


Athanasius used the martyrdom he saw in his time as a powerful argument. However, he knew it was not just a foolish show, but that the martyrs laid their lives down for good reason. In On the Incarnation, book 5 he says;

If, then, it is by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ that death is trampled underfoot, it is clear that it is Christ Himself and none other Who is the Archvictor over death and has robbed it of its power. Death used to be strong and terrible, but now, since the sojourn of the Savior and the death and resurrection of His body, it is despised; and obviously it is by the very Christ Who mounted on the cross that it has been destroyed and vanquished finally. When the sun rises after the night and the whole world is lit up by it, nobody doubts that it is the sun which has thus shed its light everywhere and driven away the dark. Equally clear is it, since this utter scorning and trampling down of death has ensued upon the Savior's manifestation in the body and His death on the cross, that it is He Himself Who brought death to nought and daily raises monuments to His victory in His own disciples.

And Isaiah in one of his greatest prophesies, tells us:

On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine-
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove the disgrace of his people
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.


I know we all deal with these kind of things differently, and I have no idea how helpful that will be to anyone else, but the death of death is a very comforting thought to me. It will not always be this way.