Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
When St. Gavrilia was asked if she feared death, she responded:
That’s what I don’t fear – not a bit! Every year till Ascension Day I love the Funeral Service to include the Hymn “Christ is Risen.” …It seems to me that when the time of my departure comes, it will be something very simple, because Death does not exist. It will be like closing one door and opening another! I remember a fine painting showing two rose gardens separated by a wall. A twig, from one of the rose bushes, had worked its way through a crack in a wall and a beautiful rose had bloomed on the other side. That’s how it is with our life. We leave this world and go to blossom in the Next. ~ St. Gavrilia (The Ascetic of Love)
Memory Eternal, Julia – who left today to go blossom in the Next… Where there is no more pain, sickness, sighing, nor sorrow, but Life Everlasting!
Icon of St. Juliana