"Into your hands I commend my spirit. My spirit. Not my mind or my body. But my spirit. I am asked to give my soul to the Father. The soul which contains who I am, my experiences, my memories, my uniqueness. The soul is the image and likeness of God. We are asked to let go. And in letting go, we are giving ourselves over to God. To give control to him. All too often our lives are spent trying to get or keep in control. We cannot stand the thought of chaos in our lives. We seek and crave order in our lives. Your ways are not God’s ways. God is always asking us to step back, to take a breath, to listen to Him speaking through His Son and the Scriptures. To turn away from this world and to seek Him, to return to Him. To die to self and live." -- "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46) Chris Hainley - Lane Community College

"When Rodleigh said this with so much conviction, the Words of Jesus flashed through my mind: 'Father, into your hands, I commend my Spirit.' Dying is trusting in the catcher. To care for the dying, is to say, ' Do not be afraid. Remember that you are the beloved child of God. He will be there when you make your long jump. Don't try to grab him; he will grab you. Just stretch out your arms and hands and trust, trust, trust." -- Father, Into Your Hands I commend My spirit excerpted from Our Greatest Gift A Meditation On Dying And Caring, Harper, 1994by Henri J.M. Nouwen

"Faith can mean several things. It can mean assent to a proposition held up by the Church as worthy of belief. Going together with faith as assent, however, is faith as trust. As children, many of us had the experience of being invited to jump off a wall, a staircase, or the edge of a pool into the arms of a waiting parent. All our instincts of self-preservation told us not to jump; yet faith overcame fear; and faith was usually vindicated.
     Perhaps then we can understand the faith of Jesus in these terms. His Father has led him to the cross and invited him to jump into the abyss of death, trusting that it will not be the end, that he will be caught up in his Father’s arms, as it were, and after three days raised from the dead." -- The Seventh Word

Related: Father forgive them... - Listening to the Last Words of Jesus: Meditation - 'Father, forgive them!' - A reflection on Luke 23:34
Today you will be with me... - Woman, this is your son... - My God, my God - I am thirsty - It is finished - Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit