Jeannie Ewing - From Grief to Grace

Jeannie Ewing

From Grief to Grace

The Journey from Tragedy to Triumph

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2016 by Jeannie Ewing

Printed in the United States of America.

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Perceptions Design Studio.

Biblical references in this book are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church , second edition, for use in the United States of America, copyright CD 1994 and 1997, United States Catholic Conference Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ewing, Jeannie author.

Title: From grief to grace : the journey from tragedy to triumph / Jeannie

Ewing.

Description: Manchester, New Hampshire : Sophia Institute Press, 2016.

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016003964 ISBN 9781622822942 (pbk. : alk. paper) ePub ISBN 978-1-622822-959

Subjects: LCSH: Suffering Religious aspects Catholic Church. Loss

(Psychology) Religious aspects Catholic Church. Grief Religious

aspects Catholic Church.

Classification: LCC BX2373.S5 E95 2016 DDC 248.8/6 dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016003964

For all of the silent heroes and heroines
who carry their crosses without complaint
and embrace the joy that
every moment presents to them

Contents

Appendices

A.

B.

C.

Bibliography

About the Author: Jeannie Ewing

Foreword

I have had the pleasure and honor of knowing Jeannie Ewing for eight years, and among her list of many accomplishments, she is a faithful and zealous Catholic, a great wife to her husband, Ben, a wonderful mother to her daughters, Felicity and Sarah, and a great friend. Jeannie and I met in the summer of 2006 as interns for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. I knew then that I had met a very intelligent, determined, and passionate young woman. She is very involved in her home parish of St. Johns in Goshen, Indiana, and an accomplished writer.

When Jeannie mentioned to me several months ago that she was working on a book on human suffering and the response of faith to one of the most difficult mysteries of God, I must admit that I thought it would be a difficult undertaking at the time, but I also knew that with prayer, careful reflection, and a deep faith, she would accomplish what she set her mind and heart to do. I have no doubt that, as you read this very heartfelt and thought-provoking book, you will be enamored with Jeannies sincere and powerful story.

Even if you find that you cannot identify with every aspect of Jeannies experience with suffering and the power of faith to overcome the obstacles that come from temptations to doubting God and despair, Im sure you will be able to come away with a few nuggets of insight that will help you accept your own sufferings as redemptive and transforming while you cultivate your own relationship with Jesus Christ.

After the births of Felicity and Sarah, I had the wonderful blessing of baptizing them. With the challenges on the horizon for both the children and their parents, the sacrament of Baptism became a moment of grace not only for the children but for Jeannie and Ben as they searched for signs that God was with them in their moment of sorrow and grief. You will find few parents more caring, compassionate, and resolute in their faith than Jeannie and Ben.

In my short time as an ordained priest (close to five years), I have had several opportunities to minister to people from all walks of life who have different opinions about faith, hope, love, and above all suffering. In particular, Jeannie points out rather candidly in this book the problem of suffering and how faith plays a role in overcoming many of the obstacles that suffering can present in our lives. Although she uses technical terms related to the field of psychology, which is her field of expertise, she writes plainly and succinctly to get to the heart of our deepest longings and purpose as human beings even when we are faced with the horrors of human suffering from time to time.

With examples from her own life and taking on some of the heavy topics debated in the public forum, Jeannie sets out on a course to discover what our Christian faith can do to combat many of the misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flat-out false notions that our society has presented to discount Gods presence in all that we endure as human beings.

The tendency we often have is to doubt our ability to care for the most vulnerable, but our faith demands that we care for the least among us, as Jesus tells His disciples in the Gospels. How do we care for those in most need of our love and understanding even if at times we feel we just cant do it? Do we find ourselves asking at times: Where is God in this? Jeannie lays out beautifully a no-nonsense approach to how we might begin to answer these questions and to put into action the faith we have received from God.

Jeannie also relies on the great spiritual physicians of our Christian history namely, St. John of the Cross and St. Thrse of Lisieux to help you discover that even the great saints of the Church struggled in their lives to make sense out of suffering and attempted to solve the puzzle that is the mystery of Gods love. It is the examples of the lives of the saints, after all, that help us gain a deeper understanding of how we might grow closer to God through His Son, Jesus.

It is also through good spiritual direction that Jeannie was able to put into perspective the purpose that God was calling her and Ben to discover the unconditional acceptance of the children they were given. Sometimes we hear the worlds voices telling us, perhaps in a very cold way, that these are the cards we have been dealt or that God never gives you more than you can handle. While these serve as attempts to make sense of the suffering, grief, or even mourning we go through in life after some sort of loss, they are inadequate to penetrate the real reason God allows us to endure suffering at all.

Although Jeannie and Bens daughters have some struggles and bumps in the road ahead, they are blessed to have parents who love them unreservedly, and perhaps through this love they will be able to share with the world how deep Gods love is for all of us. His love is that bottomless well, the tunnel that goes on for miles and miles with seemingly no end in sight, or the cavern that is as deep as it is wide. Nothing suffices to capture the endlessness of Gods love.

Jeannie has captured in this book the essence of human suffering and the answer to what may seem to be the unanswerable at times. The example she gives of her own life represents the true strength she possesses in knowing a God without bounds and in knowing how far we can go in this journey of faith, no matter what life throws at us.

In this book, Jeannie talks about mission that Jesus commissioned. He called the Apostles and disciples to go out into the world, not only to preach the Good News, the gospel, but to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The word commission means to be sent with a mission or with a purpose in mind. All of us have a purpose and a particular mission that God has given each of us so that we can use the gifts we have been given and share them with others who are in need of Gods love and mercy.