We welcome you to Solace: Soul Plus Grief . I'm glad you're here . I'm Candee Lucas , a Jesuit-trained Catholic chaplain and spiritual director , and I've been involved with a bereavement ministry since 2009 . We know that loss can make profound changes in people's lives and make profound changes in people's lives .
We understand how difficult it is to travel this path of grief and how important and monumental the loss of a loved one can be . So we created this podcast to help you walk with God as you grieve your losses , understand what's happening in your heart and soul as you grieve , to be available in the best way we can to accompany you on this journey .
You're always welcome in this circle of healing love and support . Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor , theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church .
Apart from his theological writings , Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship , including vocal opposition to Adolf Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews . He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo , imprisoned for one and a half years , hanged on the 9th of November 1945 during the collapse of the Nazi regime .
One of his prison poems was called "who Am I ? And it goes who am I ? This or the other ? Am I one person today and tomorrow another ? Am I both at once ? A hypocrite before others and before myself ? A contemptibly woe-begone , weakling ? Who am I ? They mock me , these lonely questions of mine . Whoever I am , thou knowest , o God , I am thine-- .
A s we consider the complexities of love , as we grieve God's love for us , our love for God , our love for our lost ones , God's love for our lost ones , we are reminded that love is not always a safe place to be . In the name of love and compassion , loved ones might abandon me because they think I am no longer here . My silent plea is no-transcript .
Bonhoeffer's answer to the question who am I ? Is to find peace and rest in the assurance that , despite his own confusion or our confusion , his identity and our identity , who he truly is is known and held by God , is known and held only by God . We can say much the same of ourselves . Who we truly are is known and held only by God .
Here it resonates with the prophet Jeremiah's affirmation that human identity is divinely shaped and held . --But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence . They are like trees planted along a river bank with roots that reach deep into the water .
Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by the long months of drought . Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit . The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and can be desperately wicked . But who really knows how bad it is ? But I , the Lord , search all hearts and examine secret motives .
I give all people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve . -- . That's Jeremiah 17 , verses 7 to 10 . In the end , god , only God , knows who we are . Only God can search our hearts and recognize who we really are . God creates us and sustains us and knows us . Bonhoeffer may well be correct --Whoever I am , thou knowest God , I am thine-- .
Nothing can destroy such divine recognition . Here we may find peace . Perhaps those of us suffering and on our journeys of grief can also find peace . But what would that peace look like ?
What does it mean to be known , loved and held by God when it feels like you may have forgotten who God is and you can no longer recognize yourself or those whom you once loved ? The prophet Jeremiah continues-- Heal me , o Lord , and let me be healed . Save me and let me be saved , for you are my glory .
I have not evaded being a shepherd in your service , nor have I longed for the fatal day . You know how the utterances of my lips they were ever before you . You are my refuge in a day of calamity-- .
God continues to describe himself in the Old Testament as caring for us tenderly , as loving us determinedly , as holding us in his faithful heart like jewels in a crown . He reminds us of his steadfastness . He reminds us of his endurance and the endurance of his love and care . The messages are repeated over and over and over again , until we get it .
John Swinton is a professor of practical theology and pastoral care at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland . He wrote a book called "Dementia Living in the Memories of God , which I picked up during my father's illness . However , I found his words were much more closely aligned to describing my current condition , and so I offer these words .
Full reference is in the show notes . That concludes another episode . A new one drops every Friday . Please join us on Spotify , amazon Music or Apple . Thank you for joining us . Spiritual direction is always available . See my contact email . In the show notes available See my contact email in the show notes .
This is Candy Lucas , your host , chaplain and spiritual director . Go with God . Namaste , vaya con Dios .