SOLACE: Soul + Grief
This podcast is sponsored by SOULPLUSGRACE serving the San José/Santa Cruz area, offering grief support and grief journeying with spirituality. I hope to help you travel through grief with God at your side.
"I am a trained Spiritual Director for those who seek to complete the 19th Annotation of St. Igantius’ spiritual exercises OR seek spiritual direction while grieving. I have also worked as a hospital/cemetery chaplain and grief doula. I believe all paths lead to God and that all traditions are due respect and honour. I take my sacred inspiration from all of my patients and companions–past, present and future; the Dalai Lama, James Tissot, St. John of the Cross, the Buddha, Saint Teresa of Ávila, and, of course, Íñigo who became known as St. Ignatius. I utilize art, poetry, music, aromatherapy, yoga, lectio divina, prayer and meditation in my self-work and work with others. I believe in creating a sacred space for listening; even in the most incongruous of surroundings."
BACKGROUND
- Jesuit Retreat Center, Los Altos, CA -- Pierre Favre Program, 3 year training to give the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius
- Centro de Espiritualidad de Loyola, Spain -- The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola -- 30 Day Silent Retreat
- Center for Loss & Life Transition – Comprehensive Bereavement Skills Training (30 hrs) Ft. Collins, CO
- California State University Institute for Palliative Care--Palliative Care Chaplaincy Specialty Cert. (90 hrs)
- Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City, CA -- Clinical Pastoral Education
- 19th Annotation with Fumiaki Tosu, San Jose, CA, Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
- Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA M.A. – Pastoral Ministries
CONTACT ME: candeelucas@soulplusgrace.com with questions to be answered in future episodes.
Episodes
228 episodes
How Deep is the Ocean?
Grief can knock you under when you least expect it, in the middle of a normal day, with no warning and no permission asked. A way to talk about loss is not as a wound you “get over,” but as an ocean you learn to swim in. When the waves hit, you...
What I Learned About Grief from The Odyssey
Grief has a way of slipping into the everyday, not as a problem to solve, but as a thread you keep discovering in your own hands. I watched the movie Odyssey with a fairly neutral reaction, yet one thing stayed with me: how clearly it portrays ...
Postscript to Sandi’s Story
Grief does not end when the service is over, it keeps echoing in ordinary places, in old friendships, and even in the way we fall in love again. I’m Candee Lucas, a Jesuit-trained chaplain and spiritual director, and I wanted to add a postscrip...
God of the Living and the Silence Of Grief
Silence after a death can feel like the cruelest part, not just because you miss their voice, but because the world keeps asking you to “move on” while your heart refuses. Today we are holding space for that reality with a powerful reading from...
The Horizon You Seek Is Already Here
Death can feel like a doorway into total uncertainty, especially when grief is fresh and your mind keeps searching for a clear picture of “where” your loved one is now. Take a different approach by leaning on Catholic theologian Karl Rahner and...
A Shining In The Dark
Grief can feel like wandering off the road without noticing, then looking up and realizing it’s dark and you don’t know how to get home. That’s the emotional weather we step into today as I share a short, dreamlike excerpt from John Fosse’s nov...
Afterlife
A single word can quietly rewire an entire faith’s imagination of death. We start with Sheol, an ancient Hebrew concept that originally meant the realm of the dead, a shadowy destination shared by everyone rather than a place of reward and puni...
Broken Faith? Sandi's Story Concludes
Grief can change what you believe and how you talk to God, even if you never stop believing God exists. Candee sits down with Sandi Moran Brafford for a candid, tender conversation about faith after devastating loss: Sandi’s son died, and only ...
Grief Changes Shape: Sandi's Story Continued
Grief can be hard enough when it comes once, but what happens when it hits again before you can even catch your breath? We pick back up with SandI Moran Brafford, whose year of loss includes the death of her son and, just months later, the sudd...
Sandi's Continuing Story
One small decision can become a lifelong memory. I sit down with Sandi Moran Brafford as she returns to the days surrounding the sudden death of her youngest son, Rich, and tells the story with a honesty that’s both tender and blunt. She shares...
The Little Griefs That Shape Us
Some losses don’t arrive like a thunderclap. They slip in quietly when you realize you don’t live there anymore, you don’t talk to those friends anymore, or you’ve outgrown a version of life that once felt permanent. That kind of change can bri...
Death Is Not Something That Happens To Other People with SANDI MORAN BRAFFORD
Death has a brutal way of time-traveling us back to the losses we swear we’ve already “made peace with.” I’m joined by my friend of more than 60 years, Sandi Moran Brafford, a writer who has been blogging for decades about the stories we carry ...
Grief Myths
Grief advice is everywhere, and a lot of it sounds comforting until you try to live inside it. We keep hearing that grief moves in stages, that time heals all wounds, that you have to “let go” to move on, that grief only counts when someone die...
Death Across The Street
A line of fire trucks and police cars can feel like “something happening to someone else” until it’s parked on your own street; a stunned neighborhood, and a question that wouldn’t let go: what happened across the street, less than fifty yards ...
Secular Grief Support
Some of the most common grief “comfort” assume faith, and when the person you’re supporting doesn’t share that worldview, those attempts can land like distance instead of love. Learn how to show up for non-religious grief with honesty, steadine...
Love Is The Hardest Spiritual Practice
Love shows up most clearly when it hurts. When grief strips away the noise, we’re left staring at the one thing we can’t measure and can’t replace: the love that remains after someone is gone. We welcome you back to Solace, Soul Plus Grief with...
Grief Is Proof Of Love
What part of grief are you learning to meet gently?Grief can make you feel like you’re failing at something you never volunteered for. When the tears rise up, or nothing rises up at all, the mind starts grading you: too emotional, not em...
Faith May Start With A Wound
Grief can make you feel like you’ve been exiled to a place no one else has ever been. When people try to help by saying “I know exactly how you feel,” it can land like a second loss, because your pain is not a template. I’m Candy Lucas, a chapl...
RAHNER: Love Beyond Death--What Now
Grief shows up like a power outage in the middle of ordinary life: the silence after the phone call, the empty chair, the moment you realize the world has kept moving while yours has split open. We turn to theologian Karl Rahner for langu...
Good Friday Grief
Sometimes grief has a way of making us feel like we’re doing faith wrong, especially when we can’t “move on” or wrap our pain easily. On Good Friday, refuse to rush. Sit at the cross and let what is heavy be heavy, making space for the losses t...
Naming Sibling Grief
There’s a word for losing a parent. There’s a word for losing a spouse. But when a sibling dies, many of us are left with a strange, aching blank, and that cultural silence can make the grief feel invisible. We sit with that truth and name what...
Like Waking From A Dream
You know that split second after a vivid dream where it still feels real, like the person is still there? That’s the doorway we walk through today, because grief often behaves exactly like that: irrational, symbolic, and completely untethered f...
Grief Is Proof Of Love
Grief can be loud, but it can also be quiet enough to hide in plain sight. Sometimes it settles into the corners of our lives like dust we promise we will deal with later, when we have more time, more strength, or fewer responsibilities. ...
Sorrow As A Teacher, Love As A Map
Grief rarely follows our plans, and neither does love. We step into scripture using Ignatian imaginative prayer and walk alongside Jesus as the caravan grows, the chores pile up, and friendship matures through late-night talks and hard truth. W...
What Grief Means to Us
Happiness showing up in the middle of grief can feel like a breach of loyalty. We talk honestly about that knot in the throat—the moment a new baby, a friend’s engagement, or a quiet sunrise stirs warmth while your heart is still heavy—and we o...