Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn: Chapters of Poetry & Prose | Page 16

Cemete ry Se rvice s: The Language of Lo ss
by Tom Johnson, Family Services Coordinator and
Lauren Marsh, Communications, Grants & Events Coordinator
Since its consecration, Mount Auburn has been
a sacred resting place for those loved ones we have lost,
but just as important, it is a natural sanctuary for the living
world where people can come to reflect and find peace
surrounded by a beautiful and evolving landscape. This
idea of a beautiful space for remembering the dead was,
indeed, the intention of the Cemetery’s founders. Today’s
Cemetery Services Team upholds this value by providing
memorial services and receptions to comfort those who
have lost. And the language used to express this profound
sentiment, whether a prayer read by clergy or an epitaph
on a monument, ancient or contemporary, often has its
own roots in poetry or other literary works. During the
Service of Commemoration on Memorial Day weekend of
this past year, Hindu Chaplain Swami Tyagananda recited
this ancient Hindu prayer for peace that is at least 4,000
years old and is taken from the Vedas, the scripture of the
Hindus:
“May there be peace on earth and in the sky. May there
be peace in the water and in all directions. May there be
peace in the plants, in the trees, and in animals. May there
be peace in the hearts of all beings. May there be peace in
everyone and everything.”
The all-inclusiveness of such a prayer can be widely found
while walking amidst the peaceful Mount Auburn landscape.
The way in which those interred have chosen to be com-
memorated also sets each monument apart and remarks on
the thousands of unique lives here, each one story added
to the many, keeping the continuum of memory going.
And many an epitaph found at Mount Auburn hails from
some other familiar work: from Rudyard Kipling’s The
Palace (1902), “After me cometh a builder, tell him, I too
have known;” a bit of Voltaire, “As flame ascends, the vital
principle aspires to God;” even some Tennyson, “Thy voice
is on the rolling air; I hear thee where the waters run; thou
standest in the rising sun; and in the setting sun thou art
fair;” and most fittingly, on the stone of one of Mount
Auburn’s founders, Jacob Bigelow, a bit of Virgil’s Eclogue,
“The very pines, Tityrus the very springs, these very orchards
called to you.”
Photo by Garden Beth. There is more online!
www.mountauburn.org/sweet-auburn-winter-2013/
14 | Sweet Auburn