Love and the Pain of Leaving
Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain.…
Parents’ Grief
Many parents have to suffer the death of a child, at birth or at a very young age. There probably is no greater suffering than losing a child, since it…
The Quality of Life
It is very hard to accept an early death. When friends die who are seventy, eighty, or ninety years old, we may be in deep grief and miss them very…
Living Our Passages Well
Death is a passage to new life. That sounds very beautiful, but few of us desire to make this passage. It might be helpful to realise that our final passage…
Taking the Sting Out of Death
Dying is returning home. But even though we have been told this many times by many people, we seldom desire to return home. We prefer to stay where we are.…
The Treasure of the Poor
The poor have a treasure to offer precisely because they cannot return our favours. By not paying us for what we have done for them, they call us to inner…
A Grateful Death
When we think about death, we often think about what will happen to us after we have died. But it is more important to think about what will happen to…
The Companionship of the Dead
As we grow older we have more and more people to remember, people who have died before us. It is very important to remember those who have loved us and…
Choosing Life
God says, « I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live » (Deuteronomy 30:19). « Choose life. » That’s God’s call…
A Choice Calling for Discipline
When we look critically at the many thoughts and feelings that fill our minds and hearts, we may come to the horrifying discovery that we often choose death instead of…