Far from reducing suffering, assisted suicide has become the catalyst for spreading it. In many if not most cases, a death by lethal injection transfers temporal suffering to heartbroken loved ones who struggle to process what has taken place. Continue Reading »
In a significant essay entitled “Mourning and Melancholia,” Freud wrote of “the work of mourning,” meaning the psychic process whereby a cherished object is finally laid to rest, as it were buried in the unconscious, and the ego liberated from its grip. Until the work of mourning has been . . . . Continue Reading »
Michael Cholbi joins the podcast to discuss his book, Grief: A Philosophical Guide. Continue Reading »
One evening in the late 1960s, the students gathered in Yeshiva University’s major study hall to learn Talmud were treated instead to a speech by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, the young director of the advanced graduate rabbinic program. The topic was the struggle of Soviet Jews to emigrate. Unlike . . . . Continue Reading »
If the Feast of the Holy Innocents has a moral meaning, it is this: God’s election of our suffering is always enfolded within the greater election of our ultimate joy. Continue Reading »
A grieving mother finds Christ in the comfort of fellow women also bearing wounds. Continue Reading »
Some time ago I was in a confessional booth whenThere was a moment I never experienced before orSince. It was a lovely terrible haunting moment andI continue to think there was something wonderfullyHoly about it. We’d paused in our conversation, thePriest and me, and then he covered his face with . . . . Continue Reading »
On Saturday, I watched good friends carry a miniature white casket up the aisle of our parish church, to be laid before the altar for a funeral Mass. My friends have entered the season of Lent in a profound way. Continue Reading »
The recent deaths of Alan Rickman, David Bowie, and the Eagles' Glenn Frey prompted an outpouring of sorrow online. Why do we grieve when celebrities die? Is it just ‘misplaced grief,' as some say? Or is there a deeper reason why we mourn—and, indeed, should mourn—the famous? Continue Reading »
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