Our Communal Experience of Global Grief

by Angie Malmgren, MS Pastoral Care, Certified Spiritual Director

First of all, I believe that we are all in the throes of a global grief crisis where we have experienced multiple losses: The loss of the normal rhythm of our lives where we are constantly making changes to our routines and those of our family’s situations. Those who live alone are experiencing isolation and the loss of the human contact of loved ones and friends. Some have lost jobs. Children have lost their school routines and social contacts with classmates. So we are grieving what was and are lamenting what we’ve lost. It’s hard to see what we’ve gained in that mental and emotional chaos we’re plowing through. This may describe our experience of sadness of what we’ve lost. It may also describe our longing for a deeper stability, a deeper security. This is where I believe faith in the presence of Christ within us enables us to open our heart, asking for the light, and we need to stay hopeful in the midst of this pandemic.

Psalm 34/18 reads:
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves those crushed in Spirit.
I pray this is so for each of us as we draw close to Christ!

Prayer in Time of Grieving

When you lose someone you love,
Your life becomes strange,
The ground beneath you gets fragile,
Your thoughts make your eyes unsure;
And some dead echo drags your voice down
Where words have no confidence.

Your heart has grown heavy with loss;
And though this loss has wounded others too,
No one knows what has been taken from you
When the silence of absence deepens.

Flickers of guilt kindle regret
For all that was left unsaid or undone.

There are days when you wake up happy;
Again inside the fullness of life,
Until the moment breaks
And you are thrown back
Onto the black tide of loss.

Days when you have your heart back,
You are able to function well
Until in the middle of work or encounter,
Suddenly with no warning,
You are ambushed by grief.

It becomes hard to trust yourself.
All you can depend on now is that
Sorrow will remain faithful to itself.
More than you, it knows its way
And will find the right time
To pull and pull the rope of grief
Until that coiled hill of tears
Has reduced to its last drop.

Gradually you will learn acquaintance
With the invisible form of your departed;
And when the work of grief is done,
The wound of loss will heal
And you will have learned
To wean your eyes
From that gap in the air
And be able to enter the hearth
In your soul where your loved one
Has awaited your return
All the time.

By: John O’Donohue
Author of “To Bless the Space Between Us”

What We Need to Know About Grief

by Angie Malmgren, MS Pastoral Care, Certified Spiritual Director

(Thoughts are adapted from writings of the Hospice Foundation of America)

After the loss of a loved one, this may be your experience.

Grief is a normal reaction to loss. You’re not going crazy, each of us react to grief in our own way. One way to help us through the pain of loss is to be with others who are grieving in a support group. We are healed by companioning, by walking one another through the journey of grief.

A grief group is a safe place to share our story of loss.

Grief is not a predictable set of stages. Most of us experience grief like a roller-coaster: there are ups and downs, good days and bad days. And like the roller-coaster, the beginning of the ride is not the worst part. There are no universal stages of grief; each of us has our own personal pathway.

Grief can affect us now and years to come.

The holidays are a particularly hard time because of the emotions and pain stirred up by a time that was once a cause of great joy, but now is a reminder of the great loss you have sustained.

Planning ahead can really help.

The three C’s can be useful:

Choose how you want to spend the day.

Communicate those choices to the people around you.

Compromise, if necessary, especially if the plans involve other family members who may also be grieving.

Are you struggling with enduring your daily life without your loved one?  Are you feeling overwhelmed by the grieving process?

Jesus House Prayer and Renewal Center will be offering sessions in 2024.  Participation is open to adults who are coping with the recent or long standing loss of a loved one. These grief support groups are designed to offer support, comfort, and coping skills to adults who have sustained the loss of a loved one.

Members of the support group will have the opportunity to share as they feel comfortable, while addressing the emotional issues and challenging changes surrounding the death of a loved one.  Also included will be practical considerations as how to cope with anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, and memorials, as well as learning about the possible behavioral, cognitive, emotional, physical and spiritual responses one can experience in grief and helpful means to understand the bereavement process.  

Facilitator will be:

Mrs. Angela Malmgren, M.S., in Pastoral Care, Certified Spiritual Director

For more information and/or to register please contact either:

Angela Malmgren at 302-650-0066 or email: angie.malmgren@gmail.com

This ministry is offered to the public at no cost, but a donation to Jesus House would be appreciated.