augusta @ Sat May 30, 2009 2:47 pm wrote:This issue's 'Meet the Author' on page 78 featured Kat Koorey. I so enjoyed it!
It was interesting to read her insightful answers. Her disinterest in owning Maplecroft was an eye opener to me. I think she's right about getting inside. That does make me put it more in the back of my mind than as it used to be, in the front. I could have easily read more yet on Kat's views and interesting life. Beautiful picture, too! I tell my husband that Kat is "an ageless beauty".
I read Denise Noe's Whittlings on "Bible Readings at Lizzie Borden's Funeral" (page 70). I think it was a good topic for her to cover. I dug into it with gusto, but found myself a bit disappointed in a few areas.
I think she may have been best off talking to an Episcopal priest, since that was Lizzie's last organized professed religion. (I think her cousin, Grace Howe went to the Church of Ascension and may have had something to do with Lizzie affiliating herself there.) Bible interpretations are many and varied, depending on who you talk to. She may have gotten different answers from an Episcopal priest, or an Episcopal website.
The instructions Lizzie wrote out for her funeral may have only been
part of her service. She was laid out at Maplecroft, and there is nothing to say that she did not receive full Burial Rites at her home.
The Book of Common Prayer that was in use by Episcopalians at that time held only one version of Burial Rites. (Today the book offers two different ones.) I brought that subject up in a past post on the Forum and I think I gave a link to that old prayer book as well. So if she did receive the Burial Rites, that would have been the one that was used.
When an Episcopal funeral takes place today, and I've been to too many, the next of kin - or better yet, instructions left by the deceased - are asked to choose two readings from the Bible. And they also - kin or deceased - choose what hymn(s) they wanted sung.
I know the graveside service was very short, and I think Lizzie's preferred verses only were said there, and very possibly the Burial Rite was said at home, but I have no proof.
The comment is made in the article that "the specific custom of 'anointing' has long since passed"... and that people can experience it in a metaphorical sense. Had she talked to an Episcopal priest, she would have found out that this is not true. They still do anointing with oil when someone is ill. I don't know about other religions, but in this case we are talking about the Episcopal faith.
The explanation of the meaning of what "sheep" are is off base in the Episcopal interpretation. We are taught that we are all God's sheep and he is our shepherd. Sheep follow the shepherd. There is the parable (Bible story) of 'The Lost Sheep' that gives a good example of what us being 'sheep' means. I don't think Dr. Tedder's interpretation is wrong, but it seems to go a little deeper than that with the Episcopal church.
I had never heard of "my cup runneth over" meaning it runs over with anointing oil. To me, that doesn't make sense. I've always taken it another way - that we are blessed with so many things, if we tried to contain them in a chalice, they would not all fit. You have more blessings that you can count.
I would have liked to have seen Lizzie's funeral described.
I thought Denise's summation about Lizzie was very good. And her overall writing excellent.
I applaud Denise for taking this task on, and for her unbiased writing of the article, which was a needed talent for this article.
