1. PRAYER

A Prayer for Those in Mourning

Dear Lord, In the depths of our hearts, we carry the weight of sadness and the ache of mourning. We acknowledge these emotions for they are a testament to the love we held for those we have lost and the pain of their absence in our lives.

Help us, dear God, to embrace our sadness without guilt or shame. Grant us the wisdom to understand that grief is a natural and necessary part of the human experience. In our mourning, may we find strength in our memories, solace in our tears, and comfort in the support of those who walk this journey with us.

Lord, we also pray for the promise of joy in the morning. We trust in your unfailing love and the hope of new beginnings. Help us recognize the small glimmers of light amid the darkness, the moments of peace amidst the pain. Guide us on the path to healing so that as the dawn breaks, we may find joy once more. May our hearts be open to the beauty of life, even as we remember those who are no longer with us. In the name of your boundless love and grace, we pray. Amen.

2. MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/v-l0Tj0PdfM?si=Bkk-la3osu9bQ0J9

3. SONG

https://youtu.be/Gl2sqdfD2Q0?si=MPEK6erjc_pOfxtJ

4. NARRATIVE

The Devastation of Grief

Monday, August 2, 2021

The Devastation of Grief
Monday, August 2, 2021

In the Hebrew Scriptures, we find Job moving through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s well-known stages of grief and dying: denial, anger, bargaining, resignation, and acceptance. The first seven days of Job’s time on the “dung heap” of pain are spent in silence, the immediate response matching the first stage—denial. Then he reaches the anger stage, verses in the Bible in which Job shouts and curses at God. He says, in effect, “This so-called life I have is not really life, God, it’s death. So why should I be happy?”

Perhaps some of us have been there—so hurt and betrayed, so devastated by our losses that we echo Job’s cry about the day he was born, “May that day be darkness. May God on high have no thought for it, may no light shine on it. May murk and deep shadow claim it for their own” (Job 3:4–5). It’s beautiful, poetic imagery. He’s saying: “Uncreate the day. Make it not a day of light, but darkness. Let clouds hang over it, eclipse swoop down on it.” Where God in Genesis speaks “Let there be light,” Job insists “Let there be darkness.” The day of uncreation, of anti-creation. We probably have to have experienced true depression or betrayal to understand such a feeling.

W. H. Auden expressed his grief in much the same way in his poem “Funeral Blues,” which ends with these lines:

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good. [1]

There’s a part of each of us that feels and speaks that sadness. Not every day, thank goodness. But if we’re willing to feel and participate in the pain of the world, part of us will suffer that kind of despair. If we want to walk with Job, with Jesus, and in solidarity with much of the world, we must allow grace to lead us there as the events of life show themselves. I believe this is exactly what we mean by conformity to Christ.

We must go through the stages of feeling, not only the last death but all the earlier little (and not-so-little) deaths. If we bypass these emotional stages by easy answers, all they do is take a deeper form of disguise and come out in another way. Many people learn the hard way—by getting ulcers, by all kinds of internal diseases, depression, addictions, irritability, and misdirected anger—because they refuse to let their emotions run their course or to find some appropriate place to share them.

I am convinced that people who do not feel deeply finally do not know deeply either. It is only because Job is willing to feel his emotions that he is able to come to grips with the mystery in his head and heart and gut. He understands holistically and therefore his experience of grief becomes both whole and holy.

References:
[1] W. H. Auden, “Funeral Blues,” Another Time (Faber and Faber: 1940), 91.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Job and the Mystery of Suffering: Spiritual Reflections (Crossroad: 1996), 53–55.

5. MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/9LSJ4d5kubI?si=Ms0xcTcwdXXoF8bQ

6. SHARING

7. PRAYERS AND INTENTIONS

A Prayer for Comfort in Grief

Dear God, in this time of sorrow and loss, I turn to you for strength and comfort. Please wrap your loving arms around me and grant me the peace that surpasses all understanding. Help me find solace in the memories of my loved one, and guide me through this difficult journey of grief. Amen.

8. SONG

https://youtu.be/hj_0pvIGkks?si=2q8tbtF_2Jg5v4J1