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
Divine Love in Times of Deep Sorrow
In this episode of we invite you to envision walking with God amidst the riot of pink blossoms, feeling His love and comfort even during the most challenging times. Through reflective contemplation and inspiration drawn from Deuteronomy 30, we explore how choosing life and prosperity through loving and following God's commandments can lead us to healing and peace. Be gentle with yourself.
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SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE
To arrange personal spiritual direction you can reach me at: candeelucas@soulplusgrace.com
Our theme music is: Gentle Breeze by Yeti Music from the album "Uppbeat".
Additional Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay.
Thank you, enter 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.
Candee:Think of these images. Think of God moving with you through a garden filled with cherry blossoms. What do they look like? What do you see? What do you see? What does God see? Is it a cloud of pink on a sunny day or is there rain in the air? Can you smell their fragrance or are you distracted? What does it feel like? What does your grief feel like in this garden full of cherries and their blossoms? Is it like a cloud that you can't pick out one single blossom to concentrate on or think about or even hold in your hand? Does God move with you? Does He sit nearby watching you. Does He offer you a blossom? Does He offer you a seat on a bench next to Him underneath the blossoms so that you may weep together? Does He offer you solace here in the garden full of cherry blossoms and cherry flowers? Does He let you express freely your grief and your pain and your loss If you walk with Him amongst these trees? Does it provide you with comfort amongst these trees? Does it provide you with comfort If you sit with Him beneath these trees in this garden? Does He offer you solace? Where is your grief? Amongst this riot of pink? Is it a single blossom falling to the walkway? Or is it a branch that has no leaves, only a riot of flowers? Look around you and observe. Can you see the pink on God's face? Can He see the pink on your face, the light reflected from these flowers? It is a gentle space and a gentle time, and he knows your pain, He knows how you are grieving, He knows your loss and the depths of it. Still, He wants to be with you. He doesn't run, He doesn't rush off, He doesn't lack for the words that would comfort because He is there, holding you in this place of love and support, no matter how you're feeling. When you walked into the garden, He's waited for you here and He waits for you now.
Candee:Deuteronomy, verse 30, states --Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven that you should say will you go up to heaven for us and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it? Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it? No, the word is very near to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe. See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord, your God, walking in His ways and observing His commandments, decrees and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live--.
Candee:That concludes another episode. 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.