Am I awaited?
Are we awaited in Heaven? If so, by whom? Sister Cécile and don Stéphane Pélissier deal with that question from two, complementary angles. One relates to the expectation we have to meet our deceased loved ones again. The other shows…
Tag soeur cécile
How Should One Pray For Their Departed Loved Ones?
Praying for our departed loved ones is an old, almost instinctive act, and yet one that is often questioned. What does this prayer still mean today? What is its purpose? How can we practice it when the absence becomes overwhelming?…
How to achieve the grieving process?
The French poet Lamartine wrote: “One being is missing and every place feels empty”. Those words have a profound echo for those who experience absence, silence, the void left by someone they loved. Is it really possible to achieve the…
Mary Liberator
At the Shrine Notre-Dame de Montligeon, Mary is prayed under the title “Our Lady Liberator”. What does it mean though? Sister Cécile, prioress of the Nouvelle Alliance community, shares her meditation before the statue of Mary, towering above the choir…
Helping someone let go and pass away
Sometimes it takes only a few words to help someone let go and pass away. Drawing from her experience as a nurse and that of accompanying people at the end of life, Sister Cecilia recalls how a liberating cue allowed a dying woman to let go and pass away in peace.
A poor man’s heart?
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." The Gospel recommends not to get blinded by material goods but to rather seek prayer and humility instead…
Can hope help us get through distress?
Can hope help us get through distress? Shouldn’t we rather rely on hope? What is Christian hope about?
Getting through the stages of mourning: is it easier when you are a Christian?
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross identified 5 stages experienced by the kin: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Sister Cecilia would rather speak of the various “states” in mourning, because the course – or rather the courses – involved in mourning are not undeviating. Moreover, emotions can play hide and seek and often waiver from one to another as well as be overwhelming.