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Building Community Support
in Illness and Grief
"Yesterday is gone.
Tomorrow has not yet come.
We have only today,
let us begin."
- Mother Teresa
On the third day after Jesus suffered and died on Calvary, two apostles "were making their way to a village named Emmaus seven miles distant from Jerusalem, discussing as they went all that had happened. ... In the course of their lively exchange, Jesus approached and began to walk along with them. However, they were restrained from recognizing him."
- Luke 24:13-16
We're glad you've 'found your way' to our web site.
At Consoling Grace, we believe that no person should suffer the cross of illness or death unaccompanied or be abandoned to walk the path of grief alone. It is our mission to build community support during illness and grief and to serve Christ in the person of the sick, dying, and bereaved.
With that in mind, Consoling Grace facilitates improved life-affirming care, support, information and resources for ill and grieving persons and their families - and for the churches and organizations that serve them.
We do this in several ways:
1. Support via this web site to those in need of consolation.
Our web site is designed to provide immediate help to those in need of consolation. If you or someone you love is ill or grieving right now, we at Consoling Grace would like to offer you our heartfelt support and ongoing prayers.
We hope that you will find here at Consoling Grace whatever help, support, resources or information you need to journey through illness and grief. To access information or resources, please refer to How to Navigate this Site on the sidebar, or just click directly on the sections entitled Grief Support and Serious Illness Support.
Consoling Grace has developed a Guide for Care and Support during Serious Illness. This Guide is practical, free-of-charge, easy to use, and available either here on this website for you to review, or in a PDF file for you to download and print, and if you choose, place in a binder for ease of home use.
We pray that you will be comforted in knowing that you are not alone - that we are praying for strength and courage for you and your family - and hope for tomorrow.
2. Direct outreach and support to faith communities, groups, and organizations.
Consoling Grace provides effective, replicable, and 'easy to use' illness and grief education, training, and support programs to Catholic parishes, Christian churches, faith-based schools, pro-life groups and health or residential care facilities, among others.
Program offerings include: speakers, educational materials, training seminars, consultations, pre-written monthly bereavement letters, bulletin inserts, faith-based reflections, grief fellowship support groups, an illness and grief 'hospitality ministry,' 'compassion baskets' and more.
To find out more about what's available to your church or organization through Consoling Grace, please refer to the sections entitled Community Outreach and Educational Programs.
3. Community-based education
We offer a series of dynamic, interactive, educational presentations specifically tailored to a variety of audiences - including church congregations, school children, teachers, and parents, pro-life gatherings, health care professionals, and more.
Please refer to Educational Programs for more detailed information.
4. Service/Prayer/Compassion
Unfortunately, many people who suffer from illness and grief feel isolated from a community of compassionate support - some even feel as if they are a burden to the community or to their caregivers.
At Consoling Grace, we offer life-affirming compassion to those who suffer. We honor the sacredness of every human life - and believe that though situations are burdensome, people never are. We pray each day for each and every person who visits this web site, for their families, friends, and faith communities. And we hope to renew within faith communites the committment to compassionate service.
5. In conclusion
We would like to offer you an accompaniment of sorts as you journey from the Calvary of illness, through grief, to Emmaus - the village of hope. We hope that the 'lively exchange' between Consoling Grace and your family, school, organization or faith community might result in a 'ministry of consolation' closer to home.
In that tradition, we pray that you will be comforted in knowing that you are not alone - that you will recognize that the Lord Jesus is present with you as you journey through illness and grief - and as you work to improve care foe seriously ill and grieving persons within your community.
Eileen
Eileen T. Geller
President, Consoling Grace