by Phoebe Farag Mikhail

Last week we commemorated the fortieth day of my mother in law, Wedad Gendy’s repose in the Lord. We were blessed to have her be able to attend our wedding in the US and also to live with us for six months at a time in 2012 and 2013.

In my book, I described how, during those months she lived with us, she ordered her days by praying the hours. This photo of my mother in law is the position I so often saw her: seated, holding my baby daughter on her lap, with the Agpeya (the Coptic Prayer Book of the Hours) in her hands and her head covered, praying whatever hour it was.

The effect of the Psalms and prayers etched so deeply in her heart and her memory became apparent as she approached the days of her departure. She was sick, we knew, but we didn’t know exactly what caused her deterioration. She lost ability to speak except for two phrases she repeated: “The Lord be with you. The Virgin Mary be with you.”

We spoke to a speech expert to find out how we could help her. The expert noted that she repeated these phrases because they were in her muscle memory.

Imagine having these words of blessing in your muscle memory.

They might have been the only words she had left to say, because she knew where she was going.

It’s my hope now that the words of the Psalms, the words of prayer, the words of blessing are always on my lips too, even at the hour of my departure.  This can only happen if Hours order my days too, the words of the Psalms connecting me with God and the great cloud of witnesses that have marked this path before us.

“Return to your rest, O my soul, For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you” (Psalm 116:7).

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