On Sacred Ground Pastoral Care To The Dying And Bereaved

This book is about life, not death. When we are with people approaching death, we feel a sense of awe, the solemnity of a great and sacred moment approaching. To accompany other people, along with their loved ones, up to the gate of death, is to enter holy ground; to stand in an awesome place where the wind of the Spirit blows, to encounter peace and grief, insight, intimacy and pain on a level not found in ordinary living. An updated and expanded edition of a classic book, Spiritual Care of Dying and Bereaved People is a fresh, original, and honest look at death and bereavement, including the author's personal experiences. Most of us don't realize how much we have to offer to those who are dying or bereaved. This book encourages readers to grow in confidence as companions, looking honestly at the questions people ask, and offering a reflection on the kind of God those questions reveal. This new edition also includes a practical section on how to plan a funeral.

Dying, Grieving, Faith, and Family: A Pastoral Care Approach enables grief counselors, pastors, hospice specialists, hospital chaplains, mental health practitioners, educators, and seminary students to bring an understanding of faith development, family systems, and gender and ethnic differences into their professional practice as they work with dying and grieving persons. No other book covers all these themes. Not only a great resource for practical guidance, this book is also meant to be provocative, suggestive, and stimulating to professionals and educators charged with working with and teaching about dying and grieving persons. With 50 years of providing pastoral care to dying and grieving persons and 30 years as a pastoral educator, George Bowman understands the nature and concerns of dying and grieving persons. In Dying, Grieving, Faith, and Family he answers the questions you should be asking yourself--including: How does faith development affect relationships of the dying person and family and friends? How does faith development affect grief management by the survivors? How does the family systems approach help the pastor or counselor work with dying persons and their survivors? What gender and ethnic issues are important to remember in helping to minister and serve persons in crises of dying and grieving? The value of Dying, Grieving, Faith, and Family lies in its approach to dying and grieving from the perspectives of faith development, family systems theory, gender, and ethnicity. Bowman’s unique work proposes that personal development and faith development influence the way one deals with the crises of dying and grief work.

This work includes a foreword by John D Morgan, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Coordinator for Kings College Center for Education about Death and Bereavement, Ontario, Canada. This practical resource guides the reader though all aspects of the grieving process and offers thought-provoking and inspirational advice on support. With exercises, tips, and contacts for further assistance, "Finding a Sacred Oasis in Grief" provides a comprehensive understanding of this potentially difficult and complex topic. It examines different types of grief and various approaches, along with reference guides to particular religions and their traditions adopting a comprehensive, multi-faith approach. Pastoral care providers and religious leaders will find the unique, hands-on approach invaluable, as will members of support organisations and volunteer carers. It is also ideal for seminary and ministry students, counsellors, therapists and other care professionals. "Gives caregivers the tools to help dying and grieving persons face the best and worst that life has to offer. It is the worst, because death means the end of the attachments that make life worthwhile. It is the best, because it shows us what is truly meaningful and important in life. Mortality is a great gift if we have the knowledge and the courtesy to face it." - John D Morgan, in the Foreword.

This collection of previously unpublished essays addresses a wide range of topics relevant to the on-going debates regarding dying and death and the subtleties, nuances, and complexities accompanying these phenomena. The authors have attempted to contribute their experiences, insights, and research results to clarify rather than obfuscate. Topic coverage is broad; however, content depth is not sacrificed. The diversity of authors' backgrounds, both geographical and disciplinary, also serves to make this volume unique. The chapters in this volume offer a substantial contribution in assisting care-givers in arriving at acceptable ethical positions in their pastoral, counseling, medical, and mortician roles.

The new edition of Spirituality in Nursing explores the relationship between spirituality and the practice of nursing from a variety of perspectives, including: nursing assessment of patients' spiritual needs, the nurse's role in the provision of spiritual care; the spiritual nature of the nurse-patient relationship; the spiritual history of the nursing profession; and contemporary interest in spirituality within the nursing profession. This updated Third Edition includes a new chapter on spiritual well being, quality of life at end of life, and stories from patients.

In this book, Tessie R. Simmons applies spirituals to the death and dying experience of the terminally ill. This offers pastors and other pastoral care professionals an innovative devotional to provide spiritual care to the terminally ill and recovery care to their family. The book also offers the family of the terminally ill the unique opportunity to share in spiritual care partnership and to encounter self-recovery care. Guidelines on how to use the book to provide spiritual care to the terminally ill and recovery care to the bereaved family makes this book valuable to a broader readership.

The essays in this volume stress the legitimacy and importance of the role of administering comfort and reassurance to the terminally ill. This book is a practical guide for caring for the dying and those they leave behind, written especially for the clergy. The book is divided into three sections: an overview of the pastoral role; death and dying; and loss and grief. Among the topics covered are community resources, interdisciplinary care skills; education and research; working with health care professionals; loss as an experience in living; family issues in coping with change and loss resulting from surgery and chronic illness; and issues and strategies in managing anticipatory grief and bereavement.

Pastoral Care of the Dying provides a convenient resource of the official texts of the Church for those at the bedside of Catholics in their final hours.