Finding Hope After Loss

Loss can make the world feel smaller, but something larger than sorrow keeps breaking through: a steady love that refuses to leave. We open a gentle path through grief by walking the terrain of Lent and Easter—naming the desert honestly and listening for the first hints of dawn. Along the way, we draw on Rumi’s striking line about love and separation and on Romans 8:35, asking what it means to be held when everything else feels unsteady.

Together we reflect on how Lent becomes less a ritual and more a refuge, a season that burnishes the heart rather than burdens it. The desert teaches us to travel light, to notice where God moves under the noise, and to accept help when it arrives. From there, Easter becomes recognizable not as a shortcut around sorrow but as the quiet recovery after deep mourning: one morning the light looks kinder, the load a shade lighter, and hope begins to sound like our own voice again. We talk about daily practices that anchor us—simple prayers, small acts of gratitude, and the healing repetition of one word that changes everything: beloved.

A blessing inspired by Jan Richardson meets listeners exactly where they are—offering rest, courage, and the promise that grace shows up on the road. If you’re carrying loss, longing for meaning, or needing a reminder that separation is not the final word, this conversation holds space for you.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE

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Music and sound effects today by:   via Pixabay

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Purpose Of Solace
• 1:13 Rumi And The Promise Of Love
• 2:29 Lent As Desert And Preparation
• 3:43 Easter Hope In The Midst Of Grief
• 6:04 Remembering We Are Beloved
• 7:55 Jan Richardson’s Blessing
• 8:58 Closing And Ways To Connect

Transcript

Candee: 0:27

Welcome to Solace: Soul+ Grief. I'm your host, Cande Lucas. We know that the loss of a loved one has a profound effect on our lives, and we would like to help you deepen your faith. Pay attention to where God is moving in your life as you grieve, and call upon the love of God to accompany you. To help us reflect more deeply on our grief and God's place in our life, and God's place next to us as we grieve. Please remember you're always welcome in our circle of healing love and support. I am moved to remember the words of the Persian poet Rumi, a desert father in the best sense, who in the thirteenth century wrote, Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes, because for those who love with heart and soul, there is no such thing as separation. For are we not called to bask in the love of Jesus, asked to love with our hearts and our souls, clearly not just with our eyes. Each day we can remember in mass or in private or in common prayer what this gift of uncompromising radical love means to each of us in our daily lives. Remember Romans 8:35? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? A very rhetorical question. We can start each day with a renewed and grateful heart. We can start each day with an affirmative yes to God. Shortly after I was moved to my own conversion moment and became Catholic, I was immediately drawn to the Lenten season. I viewed Ash Wednesday as a communal call to pause and note in the middle of our daily lives his call and his response and his sacrifice. After all, he is in the desert suffering for you and for us all. Because we know the story and how it ends, I think many may not take the time to savor the journey and the burnishing that comes with being in the desert with the living Jesus those 40 days. It is all preparing us for a new moment with him after his resurrection. It is in those days of Easter after the resurrection that his love shines so brightly and new to us. Imagine a new day with him, new hope and new love and new grace. This is the gift that Easter will bring to each of us, the possibility of a renewed life and love and hope in him and with him. I think this is so often as the recovery time after a long period of grief and mourning, and the day that we wake up and see a little bit of sun, a little bit of hope. We may smile a little. This is not to say that our worldly duties and chores are forgotten or even lessened, but somehow we can move through our days easier and lighter with the reminder of the taste of his new love still on our tongues. We remember what it is to be held in the arms of one who only knows boundless love for us. We are comforted in our silent moments and in our sadness and suffering, and rejoice in his love in our public selves. For our secret is that Eastertide will remind us how truly loved we are, how we are never separated from him and that love, not even for an instant, not in our wearying or worrying, not in our coming and our going, not at all. So as we continue to cross with Christ into the landscape of Lent and into the mystery that lies ahead of us, may we know at least this about ourselves that our name too is beloved. Beloved is where we begin. If you would enter into the wilderness, do not begin without a blessing. Do not leave without hearing who you are. Beloved. Do not go without letting it echo in your ears. If you find it is hard to let it into your heart, do not despair. That is what this journey is for. I cannot promise this blessing will free you from danger, from fear, from hunger or thirst, from the scorching of sun or the fall of the night. But I can tell you that on this path there will be help. I can tell you that on this way there will be rest. I can tell you that you will still know the strange graces that come to our aid only on a road such as this, that fly to meet us bearing comfort and strength, that come alongside us for no other cause than to lean themselves toward our ear, and with their curious insistence whisper our name. Beloved, beloved, beloved. This is a prayer from Jan Richardson and Circle of Grace. That brings to a close another episode. I'm Candee Lucas, your host, chaplain, and spiritual director. Please support us by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or Spotify. You can contact us through the email on the show notes. We always welcome your comments and suggestions for future episodes. Spiritual direction is always available for those who are grieving. Be gentle with yourselves. Travel with God, vaya con Dios.