Suffering & Grief Part 3: A Moment with Catherine (2 of 2)

What does compassion look like when someone in our lives is suffering? Are there both practical and meaningful ways that we might care for a loved one in their season of grief?

This episode is the second half of our conversation with our friend, Catherine Fitzgerald. After her brother suddenly passed away, her pain was multiplied by an unexpected loss of community. Over the course of her healing journey, she dove headlong into self-education, with an insatiable appetite for research on how trauma affects the brain and body. Spiritually, Catherine found her faith to be more refined and purified as a result, less focused on easy answers and more rooted in honest presence with pain.

She also became keenly aware that our culture often lacks the confidence to respond to suffering with compassion. From this realization, Catherine began to articulate a vision of grief as something that must be companion­ed and witnessed, not fixed or rushed through. She speaks to the power of the ministry of presence: having the courage to walk alongside someone, to stay, to listen, and to offer simple, practical care when words fall short. Grief is so deeply personal and unique, which can also lead to isolation… because no one really understands. For this reason, what heals is not advice, but people willing to show up, again and again.

In this episode, Catherine invites us to rethink how we care for one another in loss, and what it truly means to love someone well in their season of grief. Her recommendations for books and resources are thorough and broad, so please check our show notes for those as well. We hope you’ll find a moment to listen and learn how to enter someone else’s dark season with tenderness and love.

Show Notes: www.medicinemotherhood.com/blog/suffering

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