Requiem Required (Part 1): Why We Cry

#1 Listen to “Requiem Required (Part 1): Why We Cry

Consider this Sunday morning’s lesson. You can listen here: http://bit.ly/1gCDfNL

Or watch here [video will be posted by Monday each week]: www.vimeo.com/rrcoc

What stuck out to you as interesting?

Did you encounter any challenging or re-orienting truth?

How’d it make you feel?

#2 Good Grief

Ecclesiastes 7:2 says, “It is better to go to a house of mourning/than to go to a house of feasting.”

• In what ways might grief be (at least potentially) good?
• Have you ever walked through a period of grief you can look back on and say, “I’m better for having gone through that”? Share with the group.
• If you haven’t experienced a significant/deep grief in your life, are you afraid of a loved one dying? Do you worry about how you’ll react? Explain.
• Is there a way to “prepare” for grief? If so, how?

#3 A Period of Mourning

Consider the funerary/mourning rituals and practices in the following passages:

• Genesis 23
• Genesis 50:1-14
• Deuteronomy 21:10-13
• John 11
• Luke 23:52-56

Why are these acts valuable/important/worth doing?

What do we learn about grief from these passages?

#4 Heartbreak

Consider these words from Anne Lamott:

“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”

• Does this ring true to your experience? Share with the group.