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Funerals in America are often elaborate events. There will rarely be hired wailers anymore, as there were in past cultures. A different set of rituals has replaced much of the reality of death, with its sharp interference in the normal lives of relatives and neighbors. The deceased are no longer kept in the family home until burial but are whisked away, disinfected and embellished, and then exposed at a reception in their honor in the parlor of the funeral home. This is called a wake. As mentioned earlier, one advertisement suggested, "You just die, we do the rest." Skillful morticians...

Of all lenten hymns and prayers, one short prayer can be termed the lenten prayer. Tradition ascribes it to one of the great teachers of spiritual life- St. Ephrem the Syrian. Here is its text: "O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the Spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power and idle talk. But give rather the Spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Thy servant. Yea O Lord and King! Grant me to see my Own errors and not to judge my brother; For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen" This prayer is...

The Elevation of the Cross On September 14th, for centuries, when the feast of the Elevation of the Cross was celebrated in cathedrals, the bishop would take his place in the center of the church and, surrounded by a great assembly of clergy, would majestically raise the cross high over the crowd and bless the worshippers on all four sides of the church while the choir thundered in response, "Lord have mercy!" This was the celebration of Christian empire, an empire born under the sign of the Cross on that day when Emperor Constantine saw a vision of the Cross...