To Carry the Light Forward

a cluster of wooden matches, tips in the same direction, are alit. A large orange tongue of flame trails into a blue plume of smoke.

If we are lucky, we will all get a chance during our life to know someone who becomes for us an exemplar of living. And if we are really lucky, we will recognize how they ended up passing on some of their goodness to us. If we are lucky.

But one thing is certain. No one – not one of us – entering this world can escape the cost of living. The price we pay is this: To live in this world we must accept that someday we will have to die. To love what is alive, we must accept having to lose what we’ve made precious through our care. To be fully and fiercely human, we must accept having to be breakable and sometimes broken.

When we stop to notice how their life gave us a path and a little light to see by.... (light chalice)… it helps encourages us to help carry that light forward. Though each of us carries forth in this world a small flame, we know that the ability of that light to brighten the world depends upon the many others who learn to walk with it in their hearts. We light this chalice today to honor the life and living of a truly bright light, (Name).