"Grieving with the Help of Your Catholic Faith"

This afternoon, I went to our local Catholic bookstore and explored what they had available regarding Grieving and Bereavement.

One of the works I picked up is by Lorene Hanley Duquin, titled Grieving with the Help of Your Catholic Faith (Our Sunday Visitor, 2006). And am frankly absolutely delighted by this slim booklet (only 62 pages).

I was becoming more and more depressed and confused and agitated as the afternoon wore on, and took this work, along with a couple of other books I also got at the Catholic bookstore, all to Mom's grave. I prayed Vespers for the Office of the Dead, and then picked up this booklet ... and ended up reading it cover to cover at Mom's gravesite.

I was seeking something distinctively Catholic; and God in His mercy sent this to me. It's full of wisdom, Catholic tradition, quotations from Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and everything seemed to hit home for me.

It's all there: spending time at the grave; asking Why (unlike Bob Deits' Life after Loss, Duquin has no problems with asking such obvious questions); anger at God; prayer; telling the tale; missing Mass in time of Grief; Confession; keeping things that remind of the person who has died; candles and novenas; and Loneliness. It's all dealt with from a straightforward Catholic "personalist" standpoint.

I'm delighted.

OK. Here are my 5 favorite works at this time for helping with Grieving:

Job
Duquin, Grieving with the Help of Your Catholic Faith
Lewis, A Grief Observed
Miller & Golden, When a Man Faces Grief
Rupp, Praying Our Goodbyes

Thank you Lord ... and thank you once again for the Grace of having my Mother in my life for her short life, and for my short life. It's hard to believe that she died just 1 month ago today.

I love you Mom. And I miss you ... always ...

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

Charles Delacroix
Eve of Sunday 25 in Ordinary Time