Remembering Those Who Serve

 

As I write this on Tuesday morning, we as a nation just celebrated Memorial Day weekend. Here at the monastery, we also buried the remains of Srs. Charles, Rita, and Margaret Mary in our cemetery. While they did not die serving in the Armed Forces, it seemed an appropriate weekend.

 

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries. By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers. It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

 

Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history).

 

This weekend I  honored and prayed for those who have gone before us, our Sisters, but also those who gave their lives in defense of freedom. I also remember that with that freedom comes great responsibility. St. Benedict tells us in the prologue to his Rule, “If you desire true and eternal life, let peace be your quest and aim.” We now carry the torch. As we hold it high, may it light the way to peace.

 

“In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Sr. Eileen O'Connell