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Practical and pastoral advice
to embrace the realities of death and those in its presence
Although most of us desire a life of peace and commitment, sometimes we are required to look death in the face – be it through bereavement, serious illness or even the end of a relationship. This book addressed to the Christian reader who wants to reflect not only on the place and meaning of death in life but also on the issues that loss and change confront us with. It offers the reader the chance to reflect, feel and explore.
Written for those who embrace the realities of death and those who stand in the presence of death, this book can be used alone or with others.
Practical exercises and questions for reflection are contained within each chapter to help the reader understand the life that prepares us for death.
This is not about life after death; rather it is about discovering and engaging with death within this world. It is ideal for those who need practical help or those who simply wish to learn more about this sensitive subject.
By Death, our sister, praised be,
From whom no one alive can flee,
sang Francis as death approached.
In this short book James Woodward sets out to rob Sister Death of the various disguises with which, in our ignorance, fear, denial and confusion, we have clothed her. The book itself occupies 75 pages – the remaining 46 consist of appendices and bibliography.
This book pulls no punches, it calls a spade a spade. At the same time it is written with sensitivity, and the overall effect is to provide light and reassurance. Particularly valuable are the appendices – ‘What to do after a death’, and ‘Information and resources’.
On the back cover we read that ‘This book is addressed to the Christian reader’… This should include the multitudes for whom ‘Christianity’ is a faded memory, or a deeply buried and general apprehension, rather than a living faith – for they, too, as death approaches, stand in need of the help which this writer offers.
Anselm SSF
The Franciscan, September 2006
If you think that death makes for morbid reading, then you need to read this book. For one of its messages is that we begin to die from the moment we are born, and that we need to prepare for death during life, to ‘practise dying’, if we are to die well.
Michael Brierley
This book is available to borrow from the Sarum College Library.