Re: OT: Prayer, ritual and magic // was conlang website

On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:

> On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Adrian Morgan wrote:
>
> > Yoon Ha Lee wrote, quoting myself:
> >
> > A Bible verse that I find very helpful is,
> >
> >   "Tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer".
> >
> > (BTW, when I say 'your needs', that includes other peoples' needs,
> > because a prayerful attitude leads us to think of other peoples' needs as
> > our own.)
>
> <nod>  Is it silly to pray for people after they're deceased...?
I can't resist getting my two cents in on this topic :-).  I personally
don't think it's silly at all to pray for people who've died, for a
variety of reasons.  Paul alludes to an early church practice of actually
being *baptized* for the dead beleiving that baptism works in proxy,
something which persists only in the Mormon church today.  Even without
that extreme view, it still can do good.  Since God is outside of time
(and almost everyone agrees on that), it makes sense that He can apply
prayers prayed today for things that occurred yesterday, so praying for
the dead may do lots of good.  Plus, it certainly can't *hurt* any.

ObConlang:  Deceased, keeled over, no longer with us, kicked the bucket,
bought the farm, sleeps with the fishes, bony-foot, dead.  What's your
conlang/culture use of euphemisms for death, if any?  I only know of one
for Yivríndil, which is "to burn too brightly"  (_gilidya varonnui_).  It
actually refers to suicide, which is viewed as poignantly tragic rather
than shameful in Yivríndil culture.  A person who "burns too brightly" has
too intense of a soul to deal with the sadness of the world, so they "burn
themselves up" and to get into the long sleep which lasts until Elori (the
cheif god) returns to remake the world.  There may actually be a
culturally sanctioned ritual suicide, but I'm not sure.

>
> [lots of snippage]
> > Sometimes I fall asleep in prayer, but although I think it's better to
> > stay awake, I do see something beautiful in falling asleep while you
> > pray.
>
> What a lovely way to look at it!
Indeed.  Whenever I fall asleep praying or reading my Bible, I find I wake
up extremely refreshed and cleansed.

>
> YHL, who will check out the links when she isn't swamped
>
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_