Resources for Preparing for Death
Below are a variety of readings, podcasts, websites, and videos to help prepare for the end of life.
Liturgies for the end of life (ELCA) from In Sure and Certain Hope: A Funeral Sourcebook (Augsburg Fortress, 2017)
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (Profile Books Ltd, 2015) Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, and Chicago Tribune. Being Mortal shows how the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life–all the way to the very end. Also talks about vocation in the last parts of our lives.
Hoping For More: Having Cancer, Talking Faith, and Accepting Grace by Deanna Thompson (Cascade Books, 2012) Told in shimmering prose, this book takes readers on an unsentimental journey through the valley of the shadow of cancer–beyond the predictable parameters of prayer, the church, even belief in life after death. What emerges is a novel approach to talking faith and accepting grace when hope is all you’ve got.
The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us about Living Fully by Frank Ostaseski (Flatiron Books, 2017) An exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present consciousness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. Frank Ostaseski distills the lessons gleaned over the course of his career, offering an evocative and stirring guide that points to a radical path to transformation.
The Denial of Death, 50th anniversary edition by Ernest Becker (Simon and Schuster, 2024). Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this book explores how people and cultures around the world have reacted to the concept of death and on the death-denying nature of American Culture.
Enriching Our Worship II: Ministry with the Sick and Dying (Church Publishing, 2000). Includes a variety of prayers for many occasions: for health of body and soul, for children, for a visit with someone who is sick, for people with diseases for which there is no cure, for those who are unconscious, for a poor prognosis, for someone suffering with mental distress, for recovery from sickness, for the sleepless, before an operation, for an extended course of treatment, for survivors of abuse and violence, thanksgiving for recovery, and more.
Accompany Them with Singing: the Christian Funeral by Thomas G. Long (Westminster John Knox, 2009). An excellent study of dying, death, and ritual in North American Christian communities.
Close to Death – Podcast hosted by comedian Utkarsh Ambudkar, profiles people who spend every day working with the dead and dying. From Morticians to Crime Scene Cleaners, Obit Writers to Death Doulas, and Mediums, they have seen it all and have maybe figured out something the rest of us can benefit from.
Death Cafe – Website for people, often strangers, to gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death. Their objective is ‘to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’. A Death Cafe is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counselling session.
Death, Funeral, Requiem: Eastern Orthodox Christian Traditions. Death is something that awaits all of us and yet we often wish to avoid thinking about it. As Christians, we understand earthly death as a gateway to life eternal. Preparing ourselves spiritually and making practical arrangements in advance for our funeral is very important. This webpage provides some practical information about Orthodox rites and funeral planning, something rarely seen in Protestant and Roman Catholic practice.
PLU 11th Annual Lutheran Studies Conference Living with Mortality: Illness, Trauma, Joy and Hope focused on finding love and hope while struggling to piece life together in a new way. Beauty is possible even when things fall apart. A look at how we carry both joy and brokenness as individuals and also what it means for our vocations of caregiving for one another and our community. Sessions At the Bedside of COVID: An Interfaith and Intercultural Panel moderated by Dr. Marit Trelstad, and Embracing Mortality: Resources and Conversations on Approaching Death and Grief with Intentionality