Comfort in a time of grief - seeing the wider
This book resonated for me in a very special way. My daughter Annie gave it to me last Christmas but, being a guided meditation for the season of Advent, I only started reading it this December. Annie was a scripture scholar, teacher and evangelist who died of natural causes in June 2020 aged only 41. She knew I enjoyed poetry and theological reflection so this seemed an ideal gift. Reading the book day by day, it spoke to me so much of Annie: her early death, her work, her ethos, her loving service to others, her deep faith. Opening the introductory section on 'how to use this book', the following words seemed apt: "on the Sunday before Advent ... we wait on the brink - of the new liturgical year, of the New Creation, of the End Of All Things ... it is a time of endings and a time of beginnings," p. xxiii Rachel Mann's skilful unpacking of Christina Rossetti's poems helped me see how those of us who grieve can rejoice in a life well lived. Just as the seasons are cyclical and ever-changing, so it is with the Church's year and, indeed, with life. Mann writes: 'we must be alert to the way Christ's central narrative flows and interleaves: Nativity gestures towards Passion, death towards life, and eternity is woven into the present,' p.14. This concept helped me to see Annie's death as part of a much greater picture, albeit a picture that is hard to fully comprehend in the context of sudden and painful loss. After a few days' study I bought a second copy to send to one of Annie's close friends. She too found it immensely helpful.
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