The Key to a Happy Death
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
Ascension
4.9 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2021
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The key to a happy death is not a long and fulfilled life—it’s a life of gratitude for the time given. Here’s why:
We often forget that this life isn’t owed to us. Every breath we take is a gift from God, who is holding us in existence at this very moment. Once we start to think that this life is owed to us, that in some way we deserve it, we will become ungrateful for the time that is given, even if we’ve lived a long and happy life.
Today, Father Mike explains how to fill your life with gratitude, and how that will prepare you for a happy death.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Whenever we end up leaving this world and passing on into the next, we have to let go of everything. |
| 0:04.6 | We have to say goodbye to every one. |
| 0:07.4 | And the more abundant a person's life is, the more they have to let go of. |
| 0:19.5 | How many of you have felt like you're in Schmitt's? And this is a sentient present. |
| 0:21.7 | Recently, I did an interview with a student. She was in a class on death and dying or grief and grieving. |
| 0:26.9 | And she wanted to ask me some questions about my experience with company people as they are dying. |
| 0:32.3 | And one of her questions, she came up with her own questions, they're very, very well done. |
| 0:35.5 | Well, very well thought out. |
| 0:36.7 | One of the questions was, in my experience, have I found that people who live a long and fulfilling life |
| 0:42.9 | are more prepared or better prepared to die, that they're able to let go of their life more easily? |
| 0:49.7 | I thought that's a great question. |
| 0:51.1 | And the answer is, in my experience, no. |
| 0:53.7 | There's not something that I've found helps people say goodbye. |
| 0:57.3 | I've not found that someone who's lived a long and fulfilling life is any more equipped or any better prepared for death. |
| 1:05.1 | On its own. |
| 1:06.0 | As that one metric, that's not been a metric that I've ever recognized that actually makes it easier. |
| 1:11.1 | Because in fact, those who have lived a long and fulfilling life have a lot to lose. |
| 1:15.3 | Those who have lived a long and abundant, a life of abundance, have a lot to let go of. |
| 1:20.2 | Whenever we end up leaving this world and passing on into the next, |
| 1:23.5 | we have to let go of everything. |
| 1:24.9 | We have to say goodbye to everyone. |
| 1:27.6 | And the more abundant a person's life is, the more they have to let go of. |
... |
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