Speaking To Deceased Loved Ones

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haydnguy
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Speaking To Deceased Loved Ones

Post by haydnguy »

Hello,
I'm new to the site so I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to ask my question. I was wondering if anyone can tell me if there is a place in Scripture dealing with speaking to loved ones who have passed away. I am an adopted only child (age 58), and while I pretty much made amends to my father before he died 6 years ago, I still have many, many regrets related to my mother that died in 1996. Any help in this regard is greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)
beowulf
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Re: Speaking To Deceased Loved Ones

Post by beowulf »

haydnguy wrote:Hello,
I'm new to the site so I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to ask my question. I was wondering if anyone can tell me if there is a place in Scripture dealing with speaking to loved ones who have passed away. I am an adopted only child (age 58), and while I pretty much made amends to my father before he died 6 years ago, I still have many, many regrets related to my mother that died in 1996. Any help in this regard is greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)

There is no place in the scriptures, I think
Why would anyone need something written by others to remember the loved ones and what you and them did together and what you and them said to each other? :)
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spin
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Re: Speaking To Deceased Loved Ones

Post by spin »

The only talking to the deceased that comes to mind is found in the Hebrew bible at 1 Sam 28:7ff. Saul tried to get help by having someone conjure up the dead Samuel, but the act of communicating with the dead was frowned upon.

It is hard losing a wanted parent, because in most cases there is always a lot of unresolved business. I lost my mother ten years ago and have had a sporadic one sided dialogue with her since then about the unresolved. This is endemic with our lot. Your situation is more complex, but the end result is the same. We cannot go back and there is no way to overcome the void. Omar Khayyam wrote this almost 900 years ago:

Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through,
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,
Which to discover we must travel too.

This was from a collection of quattrains popular in translation in the late 19th century and Omar thought long and hard about the human predicament. He was tranquil in his appreciation of both wine and what faced us. He was not hopeful. But he lived in a world that faced death more directly than we normally can. They don't come back. And we won't come back.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

We have to live with the unresolved and it can bring you down if you let it. The only thing I can say is that you mustn't let it. We try to answer what we can. The rest, being beyond us, we put in a room that we don't frequent, yet one which we find ourselves coming back to from time to time through obligation.

Few at this forum would consider the efficacy of communicating with the dead, because the notion does not stand up to logic. That won't stop us from being caught up in the unfairness of the loss. You certainly have my sympathy.
Dysexlia lures • ⅔ of what we see is behind our eyes
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Peter Kirby
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Re: Speaking To Deceased Loved Ones

Post by Peter Kirby »

It might be in the "apocrypha." I'm not sure.
"... almost every critical biblical position was earlier advanced by skeptics." - Raymond Brown
Kunigunde Kreuzerin
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Re: Speaking To Deceased Loved Ones

Post by Kunigunde Kreuzerin »

I think there is only "Acts of Perpetua and Felicitas" 7ff.
7. A few days after, while we were all praying, suddenly in the midst of the prayer I uttered a word and named Dinocrates; and I was amazed because he had never come into my mind save then; and I sorrowed, remembering his fate. And straightway I knew that I was worthy, and that I ought to ask for him. And I began to pray for him long, and to groan unto the Lord. Immediately the same night, this was shown me.

I beheld Dinocrates coming forth from a dark place, where were many others also; being both hot and thirsty, his raiment foul, his color pale; and the wound on his face which he had when he died. This Dinocrates had been my brother in the flesh, seven years old, who being diseased with ulcers of the face had come to a horrible death, so that his death was abominated of all men. For him therefore I had made my prayer; and between him and me was a great gulf, so that either might not go to the other. There was moreover, in the same place where Dinocrates was, a font full of water, having its edge higher than was the boy's stature; and Dinocrates stretched up as though to drink. I was sorry that the font had water in it, and yet for the height of the edge he might not drink.
...
Tertullian argues that it´s not possible (treatise on the soul, chapter 57)
beowulf
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Re: Speaking To Deceased Loved Ones

Post by beowulf »

haydnguy wrote:Hello,
I'm new to the site so I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to ask my question. I was wondering if anyone can tell me if there is a place in Scripture dealing with speaking to loved ones who have passed away. I am an adopted only child (age 58), and while I pretty much made amends to my father before he died 6 years ago, I still have many, many regrets related to my mother that died in 1996. Any help in this regard is greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)

Have you found the solution you were seeking? :)
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