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‘The tears streamed down and I let them flow as freely as they would, making them a pillow for my heart. On them it rested.’
St Augustine,
Confessions, IX,33
After someone we love has died, we all need a ‘pillow for our hearts’. This small book of carefully chosen quotations and commentary tries to offer some words which can mingle with our tears or, perhaps, help them flow more gently and freely during the days after a death. It is an expression of the old Christian tradition of the ‘month’s mind’, of that mindfulness of the life and death of a loved one which is so necessary in the days of raw grief. Some of the offerings are very short, some longer, some of the words, as indicated, are the privileged biblical word of God or the words of other Christians and people of various faith traditions. Sr Verna Holyhead, author and retreat leader, provides additional reflections or prayers in the style of ‘collects’ to collect and expand the words of others in the context of grieving.
