Memento Mori. Always remember death. Let this reality echo in your soul to remind you of your mortality. You do not know the day or the hour.* You do not know when your time will come.
When you get to the end of your life, what do you most want your life to have represented and produced? What will have been the meaning of your life? How can you live your life now so that you end up where you want to be? What can you keep telling yourself now so you come to the end you desire? How will you make sure you are constantly reminding yourself?
We see the seeds of such a practice, of such incessant remembering, planted millenia ago, as those journeying through the desert were told, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength. Take to heart these words which I command you today.** Bind them on your arm as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.***
Once they emerged from the desert into Israel, they took this injunction literally, making phylacteries, that is, little black boxes containing these and other words from the Torah. They began the practice of literally clothing themselves in these words since they so value these words. One type of phylactery is worn on the arm, hand and fingers. Another kind of phylactery is affixed to the forehead.
To make sure your life ends the way you want it to be, what words will you constantly keep in mind? How will you remind yourself of these words? How will you bind to yourself these guiding words?
With my own eyes, I saw such a guide earlier this week. As I was working in the bookstore, a man stood before me who I know to be pious, who lives his faith through his work, and in his prayer. As he waited for his transaction to complete, I looked down and saw on his finger a ring with a skull on it. I asked him, "Memento mori?" He replied, "Yes."
* Matthew 25:13; Mark 13:33
** Deuteronomy 6:5-6
*** Deuteronomy 6:8
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