The Importance of Rituals

passage_rhospiritualguideIn my newsletter this month I wrote about the fact that I am currently studying world religions. It has been a great course. Learning about religions is very knowledge expanding on many levels and I feel that it helps me to understand others.

Recently a close relative passed away and I attended their funeral. It had its usual ceremonies and rituals and I began to think of the course I was taking. In being with everyone at the funeral I realized the importance of the funeral ceremony. There is great comfort in the rituals that beliefs can provide. They bring a sense of peace for those of us attending and the one key thing the funeral did was it brought a group of people together.

Some people attending were there to help show support to the family members even though they had never met the person who had passed.

It gave us as a family the opportunity to come together at a time to provide deep reflection of us as extended family members. We reminisced about the person who had passed, but we also reminisced about growing up and discussed our past positive experiences. It is so easy to focus on negative aspects of life that we tend not to focus on positive elements of life. This provided a great opportunity for all of us to reflect on the positive aspects of life.

It is great to come together as a family during birthdays parties and special events, but it is also important to come together when there is a need. A funeral is a time of need. The ceremonies and rituals that a belief system provides to help the deceased journey to the afterlife, help those left behind to feel that their loved one has commenced their journey to the afterlife with sacredness.

It is never easy to lose a loved one, but by reflecting on the day of the burial I feel of sense of peace in knowing that the passage had begun and that all those that had attended were there to support that spiritual passage.