In the fading days of another liturgical year we reflect on end times through Scriptures, stories and predictions. As our common prayer opens our imaginations to ponder Jesus’ second coming, the closing of the liturgical year invites us to let go of earthly attachments and helps our souls focus on the journey to heaven.

This transition between the closing of one liturgical year and entry into another is a natural opportunity to reflect on how we hope our own dying process will unfold. As priests, we may easily deny our own aging and eventual death. We may preach the good news of salvation yet feel overwhelmed regarding our own mortality. Inner anguish and loss are not easy for us as pastors. In our bodies, in our leading of prayer, we carry our own grief, our own guilt, our own struggles to find the mystery of Christ in personal losses. There is vulnerability in genuine leadership, in knowing the abiding love of Christ within our own journey through suffering and to our inevitable death.

As we close out another year of grace, I encourage you to thoughtfully consider how you can prepare now for your own eventual dying process. Enter into honest, serious conversations with loved ones, with your superiors or bishop, outlining how you wish to live in your last years or months or days. There are important details and decisions to consider, and perhaps this should be the year you put some structures in place for your future.

If you do not have a signed and authorized will, set that up and make sure the appropriate people have access to the document. The same holds true for any power of attorney forms and plans you want to have in place in case of emergency. Where do you wish to live in your closing years? Make sure the financial arrangements for such a request are in order. Whom do you wish to facilitate your plans? Make sure your wishes are known.

Prayerfully envision your deathbed scene, and give yourself permission to plan and prepare. What might be your last five wishes? Whose voice would you like to hear at the end of your life? Would you want hospice assistance or not? What is the role and extent of medical treatment you would prefer? Consider your wishes about every aspect of the dying process. What decisions can you make now so your choices are clear? What are the practical issues you need to resolve for your dying process to be deeply peaceful and faith-filled? What decisions can you make today that will allow you serenity in the closing hours of your life, as well as in the years that remain to you?

We spend years learning how to live, and we need some time learning how to die. Praying and planning through the process, we give witness to people that genuine faith includes letting go of even life itself. We are not and cannot be self-sufficient saviors of our own lives; we are believers in the beautiful embrace of Christ Jesus, who eventually calls each of us to his side.

Acknowledging personal end-of-life physical, spiritual and emotional needs and desires allows us a deeper commitment in our priesthood. We share Christ’s cup of suffering. The cross is our freedom because we share in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. In such a mystery we find our home, both here on earth and in heaven.

FATHER RONALD PATRICK RAAB, CSC, serves as religious superior at Holy Cross House, a medical facility and retirement home for the Congregation of Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana. Learn more at www.ronaldraab.com.