Being and Doing – 12 October – Consolation in Bereavement

For the first sharp pangs there is no comfort;  whatever goodness may surround us, darkness and silence still hang about our pain.   But slowly, the clinging companionship with the dead is linked with our living affections and duties, and we begin to feel our sorrow as a solemn initiation, preparing us for that sense of loving, pitying fellowship with the fullest human lot, which, I must think, no one who has tasted it will deny to be the chief blessedness of our life.   And especially to know what the last parting is, seems needful to give the utmost sanctity of tenderness to our relations with each other…  All the experience that makes my communion with your grief is summed up in a ‘God bless you,’ which represents the swelling of my heart now, as I write, thinking of you and your sense of what has been and is not.

GEORGE ELIOT

writing to a friend who was feeling the first anguish of bereavement.

LOWELL

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These quotes are from ‘Being and Doing’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1908 for members of the Being and Doing Guild whose object is to do all they can for the relief of suffering and misery.

Most of the writers are 19th Century Christians from Britain and Europe who were committed to living their faith through deeds as well as words – Being AND Doing.

For many years these words have kept me company and encouraged me on the journey of faith.  I hope they will encourage others also.