Carmel and grief

Prayers are asked for the soul of Sue Burton who has just died.  She was the wife of our marvellous webmaster Tim Burton OCDS.  Having lost my own beloved wife sixteen years ago, I was and still am struck by the power of the change from ‘is’ to ‘was’.  One day the person ‘is’ and the next day suddenly you can’t use that word any more, the person now ‘was’.  This change brought home to me the reality of my spouse’s definitive departure from this world and from our household.  The other thing that hit me was when I had to register her death and I had to fill in ‘widower’ in the ‘status’ column.  Without doing anything yourself, one day you are a husband, the next day you are a widower.  I had come into Carmel seven years before my wife died - and in retrospect I can see that I was given the gift of Carmel to help me through the dark night of grief.  Each day my roots were piercing deeper and deeper into God, so I could withstand the storms of emotion.  I had lost a precious companion and the half of my life, humanly speaking, but my foundation in Him was not shaken. 

Intercessions:

Cancer: Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Jacqui, Theresa K, Fr Jon B

Siena, Elara – sick children

Matthew – six-year old boy dying of bladder cancer

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

David OCDS – housebound

Sophia – blind infant

Joy Smith OCDS – seriously ill

Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family (deceased mother and health of father)

Lucia – Overwhelmed by weariness

 Defence of the unborn and the elderly

 RIP Martin Gilham, Sue Burton