All Our Losses, All Our Griefs


Book Description

Grief as a lifelong human experience is the scope of this absorbing book. Kenneth R. Mitchell and Herbert Anderson explore the multiple dimensions of the problem, including orgins of grief, loss throughout life, dynamics of grief, care for those who grieve, and the theology of grieving. This examination of the process of grief is enriched by vivid illustrations and case histories of individuals whose experiences the authors have shared.




The Wild Edge of Sorrow


Book Description

The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and be stretched large by them. As seen on All There Is with Anderson Cooper Noted psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep waters of sorrow and loss in this lyrical yet practical handbook for mastering the art of grieving. Describing how Western patterns of amnesia and anesthesia affect our capacity to cope with personal and collective sorrows, Weller reveals the new vitality we may encounter when we welcome, rather than fear, the pain of loss. Through moving personal stories, poetry, and insightful reflections he leads us into the central energy of sorrow, and to the profound healing and heightened communion with each other and our planet that reside alongside it. The Wild Edge of Sorrow explains that grief has always been communal and illustrates how we need the healing touch of others, an atmosphere of compassion, and the comfort of ritual in order to fully metabolize our grief. Weller describes how we often hide our pain from the world, wrapping it in a secret mantle of shame. This causes sorrow to linger unexpressed in our bodies, weighing us down and pulling us into the territory of depression and death. We have come to fear grief and feel too alone to face an encounter with the powerful energies of sorrow. Those who work with people in grief, who have experienced the loss of a loved one, who mourn the ongoing destruction of our planet, or who suffer the accumulated traumas of a lifetime will appreciate the discussion of obstacles to successful grief work such as privatized pain, lack of communal rituals, a pervasive feeling of fear, and a culturally restrictive range of emotion. Weller highlights the intimate bond between grief and gratitude, sorrow and intimacy. In addition to showing us that the greatest gifts are often hidden in the things we avoid, he offers powerful tools and rituals and a list of resources to help us transform grief into a force that allows us to live and love more fully.




Trauma and Grief


Book Description

In today’s world, trauma and traumatic loss are increasingly common. This book surveys the important constructs, concepts, and dynamics of trauma, loss, grief, and growth, offering resources and strategies that ministers and other spiritual caregivers can use as they support and facilitate people in their journey from trauma recovery to grief work to spiritual growth. The book presents a framework for understanding the interrelationship between trauma recovery work, grief work, and spiritual growth. The author argues that each of these components is essential for a full and complete healing from trauma and traumatic losses and that they work together in the ongoing process of healing. Traumas and traumatic losses are times of “crisis” in the sense that they are turning points in people’s lives; people can either grow through the experience or decline under the weight of their unbearable sorrow and anxiety. How people handle traumas and significant losses may be the most important variable in their psychological, relational, and spiritual health. The author gives special attention to describing ways in which God might draw close to the traumatized and bereaved in their process of recovery and healing.




Understanding Your Grief


Book Description

Explaining the important difference between grief and mourning, this book explores every mourner's need to acknowledge death and embrace the pain of loss. Also explored are the many factors that make each person's grief unique and the many normal thoughts and feelings mourners might have. Questions of spirituality and religion are addressed as well. The rights of mourners to be compassionate with themselves, to lean on others for help, and to trust in their ability to heal are upheld. Journaling sections encourage mourners to articulate their unique thoughts and feelings.




Too Much Loss: Coping with Grief Overload


Book Description

Grief overload is what you feel when you experience too many significant losses all at once, in a relatively short period of time, or cumulatively. In addition to the deaths of loved ones, such losses can also include divorce, estrangement, illness, relocation, job changes, and more. Our minds and hearts have enough trouble coping with a single loss, so when the losses pile up, the grief often seems especially chaotic and defeating. The good news is that through intentional, active mourning, you can and will find your way back to hope and healing. This compassionate guide will show you how.




Pastoral Interventions During the Pandemic


Book Description

This book provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the challenges faced by pastoral ministry in South African Pentecostalism as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as some interventions being made to manage these challenges. Contributors present descriptive approaches to churches’ reactions to lockdown measures, and especially the adaptations generated within Pentecostalism in South Africa. Through a variety of approaches—including pastoral care, virtual ecclesiology, social media, and missiology—contributors offer intervention techniques which can help readers to understand the unique role of Christian ministry during the pandemic, in South Africa and beyond.




Opening to Grief


Book Description

"Excellent and simple and as clear as a needed glass of water in the desert. I cannot think of a better companion for our current time." --Katy Butler, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Dying Well All of us experience loss. Some of us have lost a spouse, a child, a parent, a beloved pet, a dear friend, or a neighbor. In the pandemic, we have lost hundreds of thousands of lives in the US and around the world. Many of us have lost our livelihoods. All of us have lost our familiar routines and textures of work, family, and community. And the losses are not over. Opening to Grief is a companion to this tender time. With the demeanor and tone of a loving friend, the authors offer an invitation to grieve fully, to turn toward your emotions and experiences however they arise, and to follow your own path toward healing. The book explores the deep truth that grief and love are richly intertwined. Because we love, we grieve. And when we fully feel our sorrow, we open to loving ourselves and other beings more deeply.




Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals


Book Description

Shaping our journey into the Divine This moving and enlightening book presents us with a compelling vision of what can happen when we take the opportunity to connect stories and rituals--a vision of individuals and communities transformed through a deeper sense of connection to our loved ones, our communities, and God. Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley reveal how when stories and rituals work together, they have the potential to be both mighty and dangerous--mighty in their ability to lift us up and help us make these connections beyond ourselves and dangerous in challenging us to learn to live with complexity and contradiction. They show how much more meaningful a baptism, wedding, or funeral can be when liturgy is made to include and recognize the personal stories of those involved. Suddenly, these familiar life-cycle rituals are infused with new life as participants become connected in a narrative web linking past and present, human and divine. Newly created rituals can also help us connect our stories to the divine story, giving meaning to what we experience and bringing us closer to God. Ministers, worship leaders, and pastoral caregivers can use this approach to storytelling and ritual to find ways to bring together worship and pastoral care.




Rachel's Cry


Book Description

""Modern theology needs the rediscovery of the category of consolation. This book is rich of consolations because it takes the cry of lament seriously."" --Jurgen Moltmann ""A timely, accessible, and valuable book. The recovery of the biblical traditions of loss and hurt is intrinsically worth doing, more worth doing in an increasingly disestablished society."" --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary, Emeritus ""This cross-disciplinary collaboration is . . . poignant and compelling testimony to the personal and communal power of lament and its importance to the practice of ministry. This book is the one that I have been waiting for."" --Christie Cozad Neuger, Brite Divinity School ""Few books in the literature of lament have drawn together so much material from the biblical, theological, and pastoral spheres as Rachel's Cry."" --Patrick D. Miller, Princeton Theological Seminary ""Honesty with God is the doorway to authentic hope and faith. . . . This is one of the most liberating books I have read in a long time."" --James Newton Poling, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary ""This is the first book to bring scattered discussions together into one coherent whole . . . with deep Christian insight and conviction, with vivid examples, and with learning which is as gracefully communicated as it is broad and deep in its substance. I will be keeping it near at hand, so as to return to it often."" --Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University ""Rachel's Cry is not only a timely book, it is an urgently needed resource for people who long for a way to live with irrational suffering. Unless we recover the prayer of lament, we are in danger of being trapped in powerlessness, cynicism, and despair."" --Herbert Anderson, Catholic Theological Union, Emeritus ""I found it difficult to put this book down. Rachel's Cry convincingly argues that an authentic and empowering spirituality requires the language of lament and protest alongside praise and thanksgiving."" --Nancy J. Ramsay, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Kathleen M. Billman is dean of academic affairs and professor of pastoral theology and counseling at Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. Daniel L. Migliore is Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.




Pastoral Care With Young and Midlife Adults in Long-Term Care


Book Description

Learn how to work with people who are in need of long-term care to achieve a higher quality of life A person living with a disAbling condition has issues and challenges much different from others. Pastoral Care with Young and Midlife Adults in Long-Term Care puts a needed spotlight on various disAbling conditions needing long-term care; the issues facing people who are disAbled individually and collectively; theology available to address concerns; insights into individual spirituality; and practical recommendations for pastoral care staff. Focusing specifically on adults between the ages of 18 to 64 rather than those over that age, this source examines ways to effectively work with those who have disAbling conditions achieve a higher quality of life. Pastoral Care with Young and Midlife Adults in Long-Term Care discusses in-depth the issues which face people with physical or mental disAbling conditions. These include; the fragmentation of family life; health care issues; expenses; rights for people which varying disAbling conditions; labeling; suffering; ethics; sense of self; and coping with the adjustments of needing long-term care. The book contains a bibliography of source material; a glossary; and an annotated list of movies and videos that illuminate pastoral care issues and offer perspectives on death, dying, and grieving. Some issues covered in Pastoral Care with Young and Midlife Adults in Long-Term Care include: disAbling conditions health care of women health care of men economics of disAbility the impact of disAbling conditions upon the family long-term care rights and ethics for people with disAbling conditions language suffering grief acceptance spirituality and faith the faith journey ethics readjustment and more Pastoral Care with Young and Midlife Adults in Long-Term Care is an insightful, important book for pastoral care professionals, counselors, educators, health professionals, psychologists, and anyone with a disAbling condition.