When someone we love dies, may we after our weeping, discover that what we seem to have lost has been taken into your safekeeping to be preserved forever in a better state. When we learn to let go, help us to cherish the memories of all that was good and lasting in the one who has died.
— Lakota Prayer Book by Rev. Charles Flood, SCJ
Honoring loved ones who have passed is important to the Lakota (Sioux) people. One way they do this for the recently departed is with the creation of a prayer tie.
To make a prayer tie, a bit of rolled sage is wrapped in a strip of fabric bearing the loved one’s name. During an Inípi — sweat lodge ceremony — the ties are burned and the smoke that rises from the flames symbolizes the spirits on their upward journey toward heaven.
We would like to invite you to submit the name of a loved one you would like honored in this way. Our students will take great care in creating a prayer tie for you, which will hang in Our Lady of the Sioux Chapel through All Souls Day in November until the next Inípi.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you as you endure the loss of your loved one.
