Nelson Mandela belongs to the ages whether he lives another hour, day or decade.But in what may well be his final days, he’s focusing attention on a modern and yet very old question: When medical treatment can extend life interminably, what's the right thing to ask of doctors – or of the Almighty?
Few outside Mandela’s inner circle know the South African icon’s exact condition and treatment. Family members said last week that he had stopped speaking but was responding to voices. Officials have said he’s battling a lung infection, but they haven’t released much information beyond that.
What we do know is how Mandela’s countrymen have responded to what could be his last illness. More often than not, that response has included public prayer, vigils and hymns.
The South African network SABC reported one sort of prayer being offered, that of healing.
Elizabeth Lipule, 77, an African National Congress Women's League member, told SABC that the louder she sang the more her prayers would be heard.
"We pray that God gives him many years, we still need him."
But the South African Anglican archbishop, Thabo Makgoba, offered a prayer with a rather different tone.
Makgoba prayed the South Africans who will mourn Mandela's eventual death may be solaced. But he also prayed that the anti-apartheid icon will have "a quiet night, and a peaceful, perfect, end."
More here-
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/01/prayers-for-mandela-healing-or-heaven/
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