Living and Dying with Grace and Gratitude

Since I joined the Mount community, Sr. Laura Haug has been an exemplary model of the graciousness and gratitude that flows from the decision to let go of what has been and live simply. In every group of sisters she lived with, she requested the smallest bedroom. With every life transition, from retiring as an education professor at Benedictine College to making the decision to move to Dooley Center, she adapted to her new circumstances with equanimity. Thankfulness was integral to her life, whether she was sharing a simple breakfast with friends or making daily treks past the large windows she so appreciated in the hallways of Dooley Center.

Now that Sr. Laura has died, it is no surprise that she let go of her earthly life with grace and ease. Upon learning she had bleeding in her brain, she firmly rejected extraordinary measures and asked to return home to die in her own bed. Francis Bacon once said, “Death is a friend of ours, and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.” In true Benedictine fashion, Sr. Laura offered hospitality even to death itself.

The following poem by Sr. Mary Faith Schuster seems like an appropriate meditation as we  say goodbye to Sr. Laura. Though she has left the earth with her utter peace, she has given us a model for how to achieve that peace ourselves.

For the Saints

Those who die take their everlastingness

along with them. They leave the earth

with some abandon and some utter peace.

They will pray that we can follow their example

And let go the flowers and the fences

and the rooftops where sparrows hold

their dignity. We give up every realm

to enter another. We cannot keep hoarding

the voices of eternity. One holds the whole

and cannot keep accumulating.

Let the saints go home. Oh God give them

their peace and give us here

the sound of morning and the endless view

of everything on earth that speaks of you.

                         Mary Faith Schuster, OSB