Her Greatest Prayer
by Timothy Stathis, Delivered to Family and Friends following the Funeral
Her greatest prayer, her most sacred request in beseeching the intervention of the Lord God into the lives of her family – was graciously granted her in this, her long life: That all her 10 children would out-live her;
Then knowing we yet existed, she, though she always wanted one more day to see and hear of the well-being of her loved ones, ultimately departed this realm, this sphere of her awareness, which encompassed the lives of us all, with a special Peace and sense of the DUTY of Motherhood having been fulfilled.
With certainty, she also suffered in the empathetic losses of loved ones over the years tied so closely in our family bonds – those who died far before their Natural Time: Her own sister Barbara: her sisters’ children: Barbie, Lucia, Tony, later, Vageli, & Teddy; and the suffering of her own children in their losses: in the passing of Kim and beloved Mary Lou.
She took all this suffering within herself, and then pressed-on to sustain life’s ever-unfolding with all the new lives ever entering the mix of her sense of purpose, of giving herself unto loved ones, caring to ensure a baby was dressed warm enough, a child’s birthday was recognized, a graduation needing to be attended, a card sent upon an occasion, that there was food for anyone who might drop by, another’s job security to be worried over, someone’s health under the weather to fret about, a red lattern candle to be placed at the Alter of the Church for someone in need, etc. etc. etc.
Let us reach back for a moment to root causes of the existence of all those here tied by blood or by bond to beloved Maria.
Yes, Maria, at one time a little girl, then a very young woman longing for marriage, then the marriage and the first life stirring in her womb.
She was root Cause, her and Demo, of our coming to Earth (no wonder Kostaki’s nickname, her first-born, is “Kos”!) and then with each new birth, an expansion of her care and the giving of herself to the lives of others. All the way down the line to her tenth, the last, the one for whom she almost, so closely, died, in the process of giving birth.
From these beginnings, and then onward, she, in a way, held us all contained in the sphere of her consciousness: day added to day, growth upon growth, our lives emerging into and expanding in identity, all contained in this realm of her awareness, and her protective radiance.
I truly believe that in her attention always encompassing us all – the 10 and the off-spring of the 10, and the off-spring’s off-spring, all of us held in this magical/mystical connection to her earnest focus upon us, has saved our lives at numerous junctures at which life-forces of accident could have, would have, otherwise snuffed-out our lives.
Being there physically near, or in mind, in thought, or in feelings held dear, she somehow deflected already dangerous manifestations upon us, from leading to the ultimate tragedy.
And I know, therefore, that we, have always been so grateful, amid the many complexities of our lives, that she was there part of all the lines of love and care we have been tied to and are yet tied to, her presence permanently a part of who we all are. She was always there, concerned for us, and we knew it.
Such a sphere of such all-encompassing conscious Love, is unfathomable! …yet we can touch upon fathoming it, my family, my friends, as we spend time recalling any or many of the 10,000 examples of her giving herself unto us.
This of her, she bids us too to strive to emulate in the lives of our own families. Constant attention to care, compassion, and love, and somehow knowing that this kind of devotion does protect and purposefully transform others, by each effort and measure of care meted-out. And it’s a perfect proportion, she always felt: the more you give, the more the protective and transformative a bond is created.
So she gave, and gave and gave of herself, as the natural reason for her being.
When we die, our Soul’s awareness returns to the point of our identity at the most pristine moment of self-awareness: feeling all feelings, knowing all thoughts, purified of negativity, sustained and suspended in a kind of innocence and a reflective communion with our conscience and in God’s Presence, with the freedom to contemplate the meaning of the existence we have led on Earth.
Holding, then, this idea in mind, and in conclusion of my honoring of my Mother here, I bid all present to take a leap with me, and now to visualize with me in this moment we are sharing together, Maria’s Soul’s uplifting, she being released now from the strains and pains of the worn-out body; let us picture in our awareness, her return to a moment in original causation, now, back in time, in the unfolding arms of her newlywed World War II hero husband, he and she pictured in our minds, as both being in side-by-side embrace looking outward toward us, they, conscious of themselves then at the beginning of their lives united, and too, now – conscious in the present, projecting out from that place in memory from the point of the early Genesis of this Family, then forward through all that they gave of themselves to in their long lives, as though in rapid chronological succession they see unfolding, all the twists and turns of all our lives, and…catching-up to the present, they see us all now, in this moment, we, connected to them, and holding that image, we see them smile, we, all here, sharing in knowing that they, looking reflectively upon us, are pleased and eternally proud.