“Lord, let me know my end and what is the measure of my days.”
Psalm 39:4
Early in 2019, at the height of my personal Twitter use, I started to see tweets about a Lenten devotional that had just been published.
That devotional by Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble was titled Remember Your Death. It took its theme from an ancient concept called memento mori, which is Latin for “Remember you will die.”
I was intrigued. I ordered the book right away, and it’s been my companion for every Lent since.
Remember Your Death resists offering easy answers to life’s most pressing questions. With scripture, reflections, and journaling prompts, the text gives us a window into the enduring tradition of memento mori.
This is a tradition that consoles, but also challenges. It enriched the spiritual lives of many of our ancestors, and it’s lost none of its relevance in the modern day.
Memento Mori as a Lenten Practice
The memento mori concept is not exclusive to Christianity. Many world religions and philosophies encourage us to meditate upon our deaths.
That said, Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble is writing as a Roman Catholic nun, and her approach to the concept is firmly rooted in the Catholic tradition. As a Protestant, I do find that this devotional occasionally includes a turn of phrase or prayer prompt that doesn’t speak to me. However, that has a minimal impact on the overall experience. The season of Lent is connected to the remembrance of death in a wide range of Christian traditions.
That connection is made explicit in the introduction to the devotional. Here, we read that the spiritual practice of memento mori began in the Garden of Eden, when God told Adam and Eve to “remember you are dust, and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19).
Those words will be familiar to any pastor who has ever led an Ash Wednesday service. Whispered in the night, over and over again in the dark of the sanctuary, they set an intention for the season that lies ahead. Remember you are dust. Remember you will die.
Memento mori has been part of the season of Lent for as long as the season of Lent has existed. Anyone who wants to understand that relationship more deeply will find this devotional to be a useful guide.
Reflection, Examen, and Journaling Prompts
Remember Your Death guides its readers through the Lenten season from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Each entry follows the same basic structure.
We begin by reading a reflection on a select passage from the day’s lectionary readings. In these reflections, Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble doesn’t shy away from doing serious theological work. She writes about God’s salvific will; she calls us out on our un-Christian obsession with self-sufficiency.
In contrast, she follows this up with an examen and intercessory prayer that are deeply practical and rooted in daily life. Each day, we are invited to pray for a distinct group of people, such as “anyone you have hurt because you acted out of selfish motivations” or “anyone you know who has recently lost a family member.”
Finally, we conclude with a journaling prompt. These prompts, which engage both the intellect and the imagination, are the highlight of the devotional. One day, we’re challenged to write a list of people we need to forgive and then burn the list while praying. On another day, we’re invited to draw pictures of our grave and select the Bible passage we’d like to appear below our names.
These prompts highlight how much is contained within the memento mori tradition. To reflect on your death is to reflect on your life and everything that that life contains. It’s no wonder that this practice has endured across so many generations, becoming a staple of Christian art and literature.
Death is universal. Every human being, regardless of tradition or culture, will die. We cannot begin to understand the meanings of our lives without acknowledging that those lives are finite, fleeting, and ephemeral.
Memento mori is a tool for helping us understand who we are and what God is calling us to do. Anyone interested in exploring this practice will find that Remember Your Death is a useful companion to take on the way.
