Pope Francis tells the story of an eighty-three year old nun who told him one day: "I am finishing my course in this life, to begin another with the Lord, because I have pancreatic cancer." What an attitude in the face of the mystery of death. What motivated her was not fear of death and the end of her life, but the expectation of the beginning of a new journey with the Lord.  Life is a journey that includes many forms of deaths. But these "deaths" are not the determination of life but the preparations for the real life ahead of us: eternal life. But not just any eternal life should we look forward to but eternal life with the Lord. This is the preparatory stage and the time of practice for our big moment in our journey.