When Grief Comes Back: Catholic Wisdom for Mourning Well

Many grieving people come to a counselor or a priest with the same fear: "I thought I was over this." This course answers that fear with the wisdom of the Catholic tradition and the findings of Catholic psychology. In one video lesson, clinical psychologist Dr. Greg Bottaro and CatholicPsych mentor Jack Beers talk openly about death and mourning. They explain why the Church gives a whole month to praying for the dead, why Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, and how peace can grow out of "Thy will be done."

The lesson pairs the conversation with scholarship from Divine Mercy University faculty on the whole person in grief, love that continues after loss, grieving together, and the ethics of working with a client's faith. It also draws on St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, C.S. Lewis, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Church teaching. Participants leave with a clearer, whole-person view of grief that they can use with clients and parishioners who share the Catholic faith.