Today, my friend is burying his father, who died on Sunday, the sixth anniversary of my own mother’s death.

On Sunday, I lit a candle for my mother at the back of the church, and a young parishioner came to help me, and I asked her if she had a special person or prayer that she wanted to light a candle for, and she said yes, she was praying for the candles, and I thought, “Well, that’s good; she has us all covered: the bereaved and the thankful and the sick and the tired and the lonely and the worried,” so I helped her light an extra candle to pray for the prayers of us all.

And when I heard that my friend’s father died that day, I borrowed a little of the light of her prayer to set aside for my friend and his father and his family, because I really don’t think that she would mind.