This week we have added several selections in line with our Lenten theme.
- Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus – for young and old, lovers, husbands and wives, this is a book to learn to read with, or to comfort those who are dying or grieving. In the tale, the caterpillar heroes, Stripe and Yellow, want something more from life than eating and growing bigger. They get caught up in a “caterpillar pillar,” a squirming mass of bodies, each determined to reach a top so far away it can’t be seen. Finally disillusioned, they discover that the way for the caterpillars to find “who they really are, is to enter the cocoon and “…risk for the butterfly.” Hope for the Flowers has helped people gain the courage to leave jobs, change their lives and explore their love for another human being.
- Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss by Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen – A book for all ages that affirms the bereaved, educates the un-bereaved and is a building block for children, rich with wisdom and concrete recommendations.
- Accompany Them with Singing: The Christian Funeral by Thomas G. Long, one of America’s most trusted and thoughtful pulpit voices, provides a much needed theological and cultural critique of today’s Christian funeral. Long begins by describing how the Christian funeral developed historically, theologically, and liturgically and then discusses recent cultural trends in funeral practices, including the rise in number of cremations and memorial services. He describes the basic pattern for a funeral service, details options in funeral planning, identifies characteristics of a “good funeral,” and provides thoughtful guidance for preaching at a funeral.
- The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care by Thomas Long and Thomas Lynch, two of the most authoritative voices on funeral practices today–one a preacher, the other a funeral director–answer the question, What makes a Good Funeral?.
- Aging: The Fulfillment of Life by Henri Nouwen and Walter J. Gaffney who show how to make the latter years a source of hope rather than a time of loneliness–a way out of darkness, into the light.
