Grief

prayer for school shooting

A Prayer for A School Shooting

By Laura Kelly Fanucci | March 29, 2023

Again. Again. Again. Again. How long? How long. How long By what we have done And what we have failed to do, We have our children’s blood on our hands. Hear our cry, God of Justice. Heal our wounds, Prince of Peace. Help our brokenness, Spirit of Truth. We cannot live like this.Which is why…

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mama bear

Becoming Mama Bear: How losing my husband introduced me to a ferocious divine love

By Clarissa Moll | January 2, 2023

When our children were young, my husband Rob and I often took them for hikes in the nearby Cascade Mountains outside our home in Seattle. Home to approximately 20,000 black bears, Washington’s mountains required a healthy respect for wilderness, and we taught our kids how to do it. A hearty “Hey, bear!” alerted furry neighbors…

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generational healing

The Courage in My DNA

By Leticia Ochoa Adams | December 12, 2022

I grew up as an only child, born to a single mother. For most of my life, until I became a mom at 16, it was just me and my mom. She grew up in extreme poverty raised by a mother who had been raised in even more extreme poverty, and each of us had…

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pregnancy complicated joy

Complicated Joy

By Katie Cassady | November 28, 2022

For all of the beauty found in celebrating the liturgical year, I find that marking milestones by these holy seasons and rituals has a tendency to make whatever experience that much more intense and emotional for me. Pregnancy announcements during Advent—potent. Witnessing conversion and Baptism at Easter Vigil—stick a fork in me. Gifts of selflessness…

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a prayer for miscarriage

A Prayer for Miscarriage

By Laura Kelly Fanucci | November 8, 2022

This prayer for miscarriage is featured in the book Pocket Prayers for Times of Trouble (Twenty-Third Publications, 2014). God of comfort, you who are mother and father of us all, hear my anguish at the loss of my child. My heart and body are broken, wracked with pain and grief. Let me bring you my cries and my confusion, my anger…

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The Mystery of Love Persisting

By Rakhi McCormick | October 10, 2022

I can still feel the waves of nausea that began to hit my stomach when I heard the news. My whole world was turning upside down, and I had no way to stop it. The voices in my head were swirling around like a plastic bag being blown by a cyclone. I was about to…

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when hearts become ashes

By Laura Kelly Fanucci | February 14, 2018

Two years ago, I had two hearts beating beneath my own.  Twins. I was overwhelmed most of the pregnancy, to be honest. Worry multiplies with multiples. How would we care for two babies at once? What would life look like with five kids? Deeper, darker questions slid underneath, slimy and squirming. How could I love…

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pregnancy after loss

the spiritual side of pregnancy after loss

By Laura Kelly Fanucci | March 28, 2017

Pregnancy after the loss of a baby – following miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death – is a daunting prospect.  From a distance I used to think “trying again” or “having another baby” must be a happy, hopeful, healing part of parenthood. (File this away under “Things I Didn’t Really Understand Until They Happened to Me.”)…

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This Is Why We Give Thanks

By Laura Kelly Fanucci | October 24, 2016

“One act of thanksgiving made when things go wrong is worth a thousand when things go well.” (St. John of Avila) My children’s favorite grace before meals is—(ducks and blushes from theological embarrassment)—the Johnny Appleseed song. Oh, the Lord’s been good to me / And so I thank the Lord For giving me / The things…

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can these bones live?

By Laura Kelly Fanucci | October 7, 2016

He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” (Ezekiel 37:3) I miss your writing, she texts me. So I went back and read a bunch of the old stuff. I miss it, too, I write back. The next day another friend listens. (My latest litany of lament.) “So…

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parents grief

you can imagine. let me help you.

By Laura Kelly Fanucci | April 27, 2016

As newly bereaved parents, we hear this all the time. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling. I can’t imagine what this is like. I can’t imagine. I understand this sentiment completely. People want to be respectful of the terrible loss we have experienced. They don’t want to assume that…

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The Hardest and Holiest of Weeks 

By Laura Kelly Fanucci | March 23, 2016

Thin places. The ancient Celts gave us this phrase to capture the feeling of space and time when heaven and earth are scarcely separated. My life has held a handful of these sacred moments and holy grounds. I imagine yours has, too. I always recognized these encounters in space and time by their sheerness—the sense that I…

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