Catholic Claire

The Passing of Pope John Paul II

The late Cardinal Basil Hume wrote:

Grief cannot be shared, for it is mine alone,
Grief is a dying within me, a great emptiness, a frightening void.
It is loneliness, a sickening sorrow at night, on awakening a terrible dread.
Another's words do not help.
A reasoned argument explains little for having tried too much.
Silence is the best response to another's grief.
Not the silence that is a pause in speech, awkward and unwanted, but one that unites heart to heart.
Love, speaking in silence, is the way into the void of another's grief.
The best of all loves comes silently, and slowly too, to soften the pain of grief, and begin to dispel the sadness.
It is the love of God, warm and true, which will touch the grieving heart and healt it.
He looks at the grieving person and has pity, for grief is a great pain.
He came among us to learn about grief and much else too, this Man of Sorrows.
He knows. He understands.
Grief will yield to peace - in time.