SOLACE: Soul + Grief
This podcast is sponsored by SOULPLUSGRACE serving the San José area, offering grief support and grief journeying with spirituality. We hope to help you travel through grief with God at your side. Candee Lucas, your host, is a Jesuit-trained-and-inspired spiritual companion to the dying and their families, friends and caretakers.
"I am a trained Spiritual Director for those who seek to complete the 19th Annotation of St. Igantius’ spiritual exercises. 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
SOLACE: Soul + Grief
Renderings of God's Love
Have you ever felt lost in the whirlwind of daily life, forgetting the deeper connections that bind us to love and faith? This week invites you to slow down and rekindle that divine heartbeat within you. We explore how God’s love, symbolized as golden cords, constantly ties our hearts to His, even amidst our brokenness and struggles. This episode serves as a gentle reminder that in our darkest moments, we are not alone; God is with us, offering His boundless love and support.
Be gentle with yourself.
Be sure to subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, or follow us on the Facebook pages of Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos, California, or Calvary Cemetery in San Jose, California.
SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE
You can reach us at: ccoutreach@dsj.org
To arrange personal spiritual direction: 408-359-5542
Our theme music is: Gentle Breeze by Yeti Music from the album "Uppbeat".
Additional Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay
The Gentle companions along the way. We welcome you to this week's episode 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.
Candee:Rendering is the action of giving, yielding or surrendering something. It came from the old French, a word that meant to give back. The prophet Hosea tells us that God came, the Yahweh of the Old Testament, and said to us --I fell in love with you when you were a child. I held you in my arms, I tied you to my own heart with golden cords--. And yet the message of that verse is that we didn't see the love, we didn't experience the love, or if we did, it is long forgotten. That seems to me quite like us, like us humans who get balled up and entangled in daily tasks and daily words and daily feelings and forget to remind ourselves to stop, and feel the heartbeat of God, to stop and feel that love that emanates from our very own hearts that are one with His heart, with the hearts of others, with the hearts of other human beings who struggle, who suffer, who are a little broken. Please find in my heart where the shadows dwell. Ask them why they are polished. So. Only. Possibly. Maybe let us examine together, conmigo. He says to me.
Candee:Jesus says to you-- your self so craves love. Yet your self is loved, madly, freely, sumptuously by me, he says, I support you when you fly or fall, even now, as you stray into darkness or the shadows, using your heart as a salve, as a substitute Even now, admitting to this fact, as you continue to do so even now, is that what you want in a grown-up relationship? No. U nnotice. T he noticing is polished, but double edged. She cannot experience it yet.
Candee:It may take decades of people dying to mourn. She is behind us and but a small polished stone in her heart because she rubs it so much. Can you bring her out out of your heart? She needs honor, love and a proper burial, a proper goodbye, a proper farewell. Rend your heart so we may weep later. Now. We are now. Mercy. God forgives me. I was called. I so wanted to be loved in my own way. Desirous of that love. That is what I cannot, will not turn my back on, Lord. Have mercy, Christ. Have mercy, Lord, have mercy. 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.
