Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren
Week 5: Chapter 4 — Bless the Dying
Read Chapter 4 of Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren. Primary Compline phrase: "Bless the dying."
Previewing Week 5 of Prayer in the Night
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 15-week guide when you’re ready.
Of all the petitions in Compline, 'bless the dying' may be the one we are least practiced at praying — because we are least practiced at facing death. Warren invites us into an honest reckoning with mortality, our own and others'.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Warren observes that modern Western culture is uniquely death-denying — we sequester the dying, medicalize death, and avoid the subject in polite conversation. How has this cultural pattern shaped your own relationship with mortality?
2.She reflects on the Christian tradition's practice of the *ars moriendi* — the 'art of dying well' — which assumed that death was something one prepared for and practiced facing. What would it mean to recover that practice in your own life? Does the idea attract you, unsettle you, or both?
3.Warren is honest about her own fear of death — not just death in the abstract, but the particular losses of the people she loves. Have you faced the death of someone close to you? How did it change (or not change) your faith and your relationship to your own mortality?