Gentle companions along the way . We welcome you to this week's episode of Solace: Soul + Grief . We all suffer losses and life transitions and we found it helpful to remind ourselves what place God has in that journey .
Each week we try to become in touch with our ability to open our hearts in all our brokenness , to be able to receive the brokenness in others , participate in the healing love that God brings us all . My name is Candee Lucas . I'm the chaplain and aftercare coordinator at Catholic Cemeteries for the Diocese of San Jose . We're glad you're here .
You're always welcome in our circle of love and healing support . Peace be upon you all . Peace be upon us all , for although my heart is rising , it still has darkness which praying will not cure , because to surrender is to be free , surrender done freely for love . Sin is failing to bother to love .
Sin is breaking the relationship with God , with Jesus , with one another . We are loved to wonder . Where are these relationships suffering ? Matthew 25 talks about the failure to love-- wonders who we are becoming , who are you becoming ? We become , what or whom we choose ? We do not succumb to confusion .
In Mark 10 , we hear the story of the rich young man , Jesus looked at him and loved him . Jesus loves the woman at the well into freedom . Or as in the story of St Paul getting knocked off his horse --when there is no horse in the Gospels . Caravaggio knew that . Jesus knew that our hearts had been broken and can turn inward and hard .
Or , in this instance , does it have room to expand ? Becoming free requires radical honesty . Name the disordered attachments . Name your unfreedom . Name your fears . Name your default settings . Name the lies we tell ourselves . But we are always the sinner . Thomas Merton once said all I have to do is stay found . Isaiah said Father , I put my life in your hands .
In Hebrews let us hold fast to our confession . Be obedient to the point of death . I am diminished . My energy , my hopefulness , I am dismantled . My creativity is low . Even ideas are flat . Should I return to past projects ? A Jesus sculpture ? Why did I say I called my baby Abby ? Why did that name fall out of my mouth ? Is hope that low ?
I turn this over to you because I can barely describe , let alone find , a path forward . Lord , I am not worthy . Lord , I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof , but only say the word , and my soul shall be healed . That concludes another episode .
Please follow us on Apple Podcasts , Amazon Music or Spotify , or you can follow us on the Facebook pages of Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos , California , or Calvary Cemetery in San Jose , California . I am also available for spiritual direction for those who are grieving . You can contact us at the telephone number or email address in the show notes .
Be gentle with yourselves . Remember you are traveling with God and he is traveling with you . Vaya con Dios .