Losing a child is devastating. For Catholic parents who lose a child before or shortly after birth, this profound grief often comes with distinctive, sudden, and difficult questions about God, the Church, and who they are now as parents to the child they have lost. Why did God let this happen? Where is my baby? Can the Church help me make sense of this? What do we do now? In A Catholic Guide to Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss, Abigail Jorgensen serves as a companion and guide through perinatal loss in light of Catholic teaching. She addresses difficult medical, theological, and practical questions asked by loss parents and the friends, family, pastors, ministers, and medical professionals who support them. Jorgensen has first-hand experience, both as a mother who has lost children in miscarriage and as a Catholic bereavement doula—someone who walks with families through early child loss. Through her own experiences, she discovered how hard it can be to find adequate answers and spiritual help from the within the Church, so she wrote the book that she and her clients have needed. This first-of-its-kind resource blends Jorgensen’s professional expertise with the wisdom of the Church to provide an essential guide through the most pressing concerns that arise during this difficult time. Drawing on the Bible, the Church’s prayer traditions, the saints, sacraments, official teaching documents, and grief support research, Jorgensen offers comfort, hope, and compassionate responses to tough questions, including: Why does perinatal loss happen? Will I be with my baby again? What are normal emotions, and when should I seek extra support? How should we grieve as parents? What saints can I turn to as a loss parent? How do I approach God with these painful questions? Why would God allow such a short life? How can I honor my baby’s memory? What if I say the wrong thing to someone who is grieving the loss of their child? How do I support someone who experiences anger during their grief? Through easy-to-navigate question and answer sections, helpful definitions, and practical takeaways, A Catholic Guide to Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss provides parents and their support networks a crucial lifeline through this heartbreaking experience.

Grieving Reproductive Loss: The Healing Process acknowledges the devastating impact these losses can have. Written in ""plain language"", the book attempts to bring about a greater understanding of the grief associated with reproductive loss and, through the Healing Process Model[copyright], offers a holistic approach for constructive healthy grieving and healing of body, mind, and spirit.

Seasons of Hope offers unique grief support for Catholics that focuses on the spiritual side of grieving the death of a loved one and invites individuals to meet Christ through scripture, prayer, reflection, and simple activities that offer comfort and help foster healing and spiritual growth. The program contains four journals that can be used by individuals for spiritual reflection or prayer or by parish small faith-sharing groups for those who are mourning the death of a loved one and the Seasons of Hope Leader’s Guide. You can start the series with any of the four journals. The journals, originally published in 2007, have been revised with a new introduction and updated resource listings. The journals also include Bible references, reflections, faith-sharing questions, prayers, and space for writing. Each journal covers a unique, standalone “season” of six sessions that have their own theme. Journal Two themes include: seeking consolation stumbling blocks living hope the Cross do not be afraid

Seasons of Hope offers unique grief support for Catholics that focuses on the spiritual side of grieving the death of a loved one and invites individuals to meet Christ through scripture, prayer, reflection, and simple activities that offer comfort and help foster healing and spiritual growth. The program contains four journals that can be used by individuals for spiritual reflection or prayer or by parish small faith-sharing groups for those who are mourning the death of a loved one and the Seasons of Hope Leader’s Guide. You can start the series with any of the four journals. The journals, originally published in 2007, have been revised with a new introduction and updated resource listings. The journals also include Bible references, reflections, faith-sharing questions, prayers, and space for writing. Each journal covers a unique, standalone “season” of six sessions that have their own theme. Journal Four themes include: last encounter the Garden of Gethsemane Crown of Thorns gift of caring Golgotha be my witnesses

Seasons of Hope offers unique grief support for Catholics that focuses on the spiritual side of grieving the death of a loved one and invites individuals to meet Christ through scripture, prayer, reflection, and simple activities that offer comfort and help foster healing and spiritual growth. The program contains four journals that can be used by individuals for spiritual reflection or prayer or by parish small faith-sharing groups for those who are mourning the death of a loved one and the Seasons of Hope Leader’s Guide. You can start the series with any of the four journals. The journals, originally published in 2007, have been revised with a new introduction and updated resource listings. The journals also include Bible references, reflections, faith-sharing questions, prayers, and space for writing. Each journal covers a unique, standalone “season” of six sessions that have their own theme. Journal Three themes include: knock and the door shall be opened our infirmities blinders to faith his wounds do not weep

The Catholic deposit of faith and tradition is wide and deep! There are so many different devotions and ways to pray that it's impossible for anyone to ever use them all, let alone in a busy family. Fortunately the liturgical calendar is here to help! In this companion to her bestselling book about liturgical living traditions in the home, The Catholic All Year Compendium, Kendra Tierney lays out hundreds of prayers, devotions, practices, blessings, indulgences, novenas, hymns, Bible readings, poems, encyclicals, and humor in an easy to use format according to the liturgical seasons and feast days of the Church calendar. These prayers and practices are a great way to connect with the Bible, the Saints, the Church, and your family throughout the year. Without paging through stacks of books, you can easily access hundreds of beautiful devotions for every season of the liturgical year. This book will help you and your family to: Pray the Christmas Novena nine days leading to Christmas Day Sing the beautiful Pange Lingua Gloriosi for the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas Discover the Seven Sundays of Saint Joseph Do the Stations of the Cross during Lent Have a Tenebrae service for the Triduum Have a blessed bonfire for the Nativity of St. John the Baptist Host a family joke night in honor of St. Lawrence and so much more! Plus learn how to pray rosaries, chaplets, novenas and how to get indulgences, and what blessings are appropriate for use by lay people. And do it all with no more preparation than picking this book up from the shelf! Produced with busy families in mind, Kendra Tierney brings these jewels of the Church into your home and family.

Dr. Stephen Doran draws from his vast experience as a neurosurgeon, a bioethicist, and a permanent deacon to present the Catholic perspective on the art of dying well. The spiritual and moral issues related to death and the process of dying can be challenging and complicated. To Die Well provides a detailed yet readily understandable guide to these topics. Each chapter begins with a story from Dr. Doran's personal or professional life that not only provides context for the topic at hand but also gently draws the reader toward the personal realities of dying. The first part focuses on the moral issues that surround death and dying, including end-of-life medical decisions. The second part is devoted to the Catholic spiritual understanding of dying and the rites that accompany the death of a Catholic. To Die Well will help readers contemplate, pray about, and prepare for the end of their earthly lives.

Did you ever have a period of time in your life when the whole world crashed in on you? Rachael, the principal character in this book had such a time; an entire year of tragic events piled one upon the other. She finds strength and reassurance from the imagined voices of her never-born children. Her path leads her to write about relentless attacks on her spirit. Along the way she seeks solace from reading about others who have experienced similar loss. Rachael’s family and friends join her on this exploratory journey. They consider the written works that influence her life. That intellectual exercise morphs into an emotional and spiritual adventure. Perhaps the imagined voices are real. Readers will decide.

In recent years there has been a massive upsurge in academic, professional and lay interest in mortality. This is reflected in academic and professional literature, in the popular media and in the proliferation of professional roles and training courses associated with aspects of death and dying. Until now the majority of reference material on death and dying has been designed for particular disciplinary audiences and has addressed only specific academic or professional concerns. There has been an urgent need for an authoritative but accessible reference work reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of the field. This Encyclopedia answers that need. The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying consolidates and contextualizes the disparate research that has been carried out to date. The phenomena of death and dying and its related concepts are explored and explained in depth, from the approaches of varied disciplines and related professions in the arts, social sciences, humanities, medicine and the sciences. In addition to scholars and students in the field-from anthropologists and sociologists to art and social historians - the Encyclopedia will be of interest to other professionals and practitioners whose work brings them into contact with dying, dead and bereaved people. It will be welcomed as the definitive death and dying reference source, and an essential tool for teaching, research and independent study.