00:00What we do here in our work with the dying
00:04oftentimes is considered by people to be something new,
00:09but actually, in a way, it's an extension of something quite old,
00:19something from monastic medicine.
00:22In monastic medicine, the infirmary work is very, very much concerned
00:29with the questions, what can we do to help people have a blessed
00:35or a peaceful or a conscious death?
00:38And they sought to remove anything that might impede a blessed
00:43or a peaceful death.
00:45In particular, monks at Cluny, France, had a commitment to beauty
00:49and an understanding that beauty is one of the ways
00:52in which people experience the divine.
00:54And then the way that manifested there was an endless sort of devotion to music.
01:05The monks worked side by side in teams of two in the monastic infirmary.
01:11And from the time when a person announced,
01:13My death is coming near, this dying person was never left alone.
01:18The monks chanted and they sang hymns and songs.
01:22This is all very, very important and part of community activities.
01:26Let the dying person know that they're not alone.
01:29All right.
01:30Let's do it.
01:32Let's do it.
01:33Let's do it.
01:34All right.
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