A million candles burning ...

Not quite. But these are the candles representing the prayers and the departed remembered the people who gathered for the Eucharist for All Souls this evening in Holy Trinity Dunoon, bringing them and us together at the celebration that is in itself a memorial that promises more than any other.

And the music that was played quietly at the conclusion, as people finished their prayers and left, was Leonard Cohen's final masterpiece, You Want it Darker - an extraordinary song of readiness to face death, from the collection of the same name that came out only weeks before his own death, almost exactly a year ago. The title of this blip comes from the words of that song, and as I listened I wondered if I too would be able to echo them at the end...

Hineni, hineni - I'm ready, my Lord.