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The Healing Journey

Daily Healing Journey Messages

People grieving the loss of a loved one can be afflicted with overwhelming loneliness. These Healing Journey daily messages offer an opportunity to reconnect with the community and realize you are not alone.

Each morning, we post our Healing Journey message here, or you can have it sent directly to your email inbox.  The Healing Journey supports people with their grief. This is a free service for anyone who wants to receive it … and it’s not just for Catholics.

Our messages are not only for the newly bereaved but also for those who have been struggling a year or many years after the loss of a loved one.

 

The Healing Journey Archives

The Healing Journey

February 15, 2025“Life is also beautiful at our age, despite any pain or limitation.”—Pope Benedict XVI, visiting nursing home Marge loved to send her family members links to stories that she read...

The Healing Journey

February 14, 2025The following reflection was written by Carolyn Killian, Editor of The Healing Journey and Director of Bereavement of Catholic Cemeteries of the Diocese of Bridgeport. A few weeks...

The Healing Journey

February 13, 2025During the Victorian Age from 1837 to 1901 — long before selfie photos, videos and family albums — loved ones who died were memorialized in ways that may seem strange to us. One of...

The Healing Journey

February 12, 2025“In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all...it comes with bitterest agony.” — Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln, who is often considered America’s greatest president, understood...

The Healing Journey

February 11, 2025“From Heaven even the most miserable life will look like one bad night at an inconvenient hotel.” — Teresa of Avila Many people familiar with near-death experiences believe that the...

The Healing Journey

February 10, 2025“Life is so much bigger than we know. Death is not the end." It was a busy time for Father Norm. A really busy time. He had ten funerals in two weeks and hadn’t had a day off in a...

The Healing Journey

February 9, 2025More than 100 artists have covered the song, “You Raise Me Up,” written by novelist and songwriter Brendan Graham and composed by Rolf Løvland, The song was performed for the first...

The Healing Journey

February 8, 2025 “I’m freezing, put the heat up!” So much of their life revolved around the thermostat. It sounded crazy, but it wasn’t. His life had become nothing more, it seemed, than a...

The Healing Journey

February 7, 2025 Pope Saint Paul VI once said, “Mary offers a calm vision and a reassuring word to modern people….Mary shows us the victory of hope over anguish, of fellowship over solitude, of...

The Healing Journey

February 6, 2025 Solutions Sing, broken voice,And singing mend. Laugh, tired soul,And laughing rest. Give, empty hand,And giving gain. Teach, puzzled mind,And teaching learn. Love, bruised heart,And...

The Healing Journey

February 5, 2025The following is an excerpt from author Immaculee Ilibagiza’s book “A Blessing in Disguise: Miracles of the Seven Sorrows Rosary.” Her first book, “Left to Tell: Discovering God...

The Healing Journey

February 4, 2025“My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to…” So often, we want those we love who are suffering a loss or any other tragedy to get a glimpse of hope in the...

The Healing Journey

February 3, 2025“What's in a name?”— Juliet When someone we love dies, our lives change in big ways and in little ways. Sometimes forever. Ann, whose husband Paul died after 70 years together, said,...

The Healing Journey

February 2, 2025“And you, yourself, a sword will pierce…”— Simeon to the Blessed Mother At least since 381, the Feast of Candlemas has been observed on February 2. It is still celebrated with great...

The Healing Journey

February 1, 2025“We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.”— Mother Teresa The following reflection is a reader favorite, which we are running again. It is taken from a speech...

The Healing Journey

January 31, 2025“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.”— Virgin Mary Think for a moment about the...

The Healing Journey

January 30, 2025“O my God, how I pity those people who do not believe in eternal life”— St. Faustina Most of us have never been there … but many have. There are countless accounts about visits to...

The Healing Journey

January 29, 2025Remembering Monsignor Richard Shea By Tom Matthews One of my earliest interactions with Monsignor Richard Shea was 40 years ago. I’ve never forgotten it. Father Shea, who died...

The Healing Journey

January 28, 2025 Do you ever reflect on the people in your life who were loving and supportive and made a real difference to you? Although many of these special people may have passed away, you hold...

The Healing Journey

January 27, 2025“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”– Viktor E. Frankl Viktor Frankl was a survivor of the Holocaust and an Austrian...

The Healing Journey

January 26, 2025“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory”– Dr. Seuss When Dana was a young girl, her grandmother told her something she didn’t really...

The Healing Journey

January 25, 2025"Plans are nothing. Planning is everything."— Dwight D. Eisenhower Phil lost count of the times he said to his wife Valerie, “We really have to figure out where we want to be buried...

The Healing Journey

January 24, 2025"Try not to resist the changes that come in your way. Instead, let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you...

The Healing Journey

January 23, 2025“Till we meet, till we meet, till we meet at Jesus’ feet, God be with you till we meet again” Do you realize that when you say, “Goodbye,” you are actually saying, “God be with you”?...

The Healing Journey

January 22, 2025Pu Songling was one of China’s most popular writers. His story collection, “Strange Tales from Liaozhai,” is one of the best known works in China. He lived during the 17th century...

The Healing Journey

January 21, 2025“And grief still feels like fear. Perhaps, more strictly, like suspense. Or like waiting; just hanging about waiting for something to happen. It gives life a permanently provisional...

The Healing Journey

January 20, 2025“Every holy hour we spend before the Blessed Sacrament so pleases the Heart of Jesus that it will be recorded in Heaven and retold for all eternity. It opens up the floodgates of...

The Healing Journey

January 19, 2025 “In this contemporary culture, what could be an effective means by which we might be able to cue one another to say, ‘Take it easy on me, I'm grieving’? Maybe if we reinvented, or...

The Healing Journey

January 18, 2025How Do I  Know if I am Ready for a Bereavement Group? Nothing can prepare us for losing someone we love. The intensity of the emotions is not like anything we have ever experienced...

The Healing Journey

January 17, 2025 I’ll Lend You A Child by Edgar Guest I will lend you, for a little time,A child of mine, he said.For you to love her while she lives,And mourn for when she’s dead. It may be six or...

The Healing Journey

January 16, 2025New Day Bereavement Programs Scheduled for 2025 “Although I knew God was carrying me, the New Day program showed me how to accept my losses and truly find the path to healing,” a...

The Healing Journey

January 15, 2025“It's life. You have to be able to get up, face your flaws, and just, whatever it is, take a step or an inch.You just got to keep moving forward.”—Monty Williams To this day, Sandy...

The Healing Journey

January 14, 2025 The Awakening By Kathleen R. Neville In the night cameA touch,A gentle whisper,And I am freeTo soar.Impenetrable walls,Unspeakable terrors,Gone.With hands heldAround my heartTo...

The Healing Journey

January 13, 2025And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings, bear you on the breath of dawn Make you to shine like the sun,and hold you in the palm of His hand…— Fr. Michael Joncas Fr. Michael Joncas...

The Healing Journey

January 12, 2025The first assignment Jan gave her public speaking class every semester was to write a two-minute speech on the topic, “If you could take anyone to dinner, living or dead, who would...

The Healing Journey

January 11, 2025Mechthild of Magdeburg, a 13th-century mystic, who was a member of the community of Beguines, prayed for a person who was despondent because of hardship and guilt. Describing her...

The Healing Journey

January 10, 2025Someone Cares for Me By Paula Jensen Someone cares for meEven when I’m feeling weakAnd when I’m alone,No one else at home,You’re the Person that I seeAlways taking care of me. You...

The Healing Journey

January 9, 2025 The book “Mother Teresa: A Call to Mercy,” edited by Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, the postulator of her cause for canonization, contains the following account from the saint about...

The Healing Journey

January 8, 2025Jocelyn Maminta is well known in Connecticut media. She was a news anchor and medical reporter for more than 20 years at WTNH News 8 in New Haven and worked throughout the United...

The Healing Journey

January 7, 2025“We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much.We don't allow our bodies to heal, and we don't allow our minds and hearts to heal.”— Thich Nhat...

The Healing Journey

January 6, 2025 The Light of God Surrounds Me The light of Godsurrounds me,The love of Godprotects me,The presence of Godwatches over me.Where I am, God is. (From Fathers and Brothers of Maryknoll)...

The Healing Journey

January 5, 2025I've seen your picture, your name in lights above it.This is your big debut, it's like a dream come true.— Steely Dan While Frank was driving through the mountains, the song “Peg” by...

The Healing Journey

January 4, 2025We may never know the effect that seeing Christ can have. In 1803, Elizabeth Ann Seton, an Episcopalian mother of five children, went to Italy for her husband to recuperate from...

The Healing Journey

January 3, 2025If today’s your birthday, happy birthday! If we missed it, happy belated birthday! And if it’s coming up, we wish you happy birthday in advance. If you know someone who is celebrating...

The Healing Journey

January 2, 2025 Remember Me In Your Heart To the living, I am gone,To the sorrowful, I will never return,To the angry, I was cheated,But to the happy, I am at peace,And to the faithful, I have never...

The Healing Journey

January 1, 2025Today once again, we wish all the readers of the Healing Journey a New Year filled with hope and love. We are praying for you in your pain and in your healing. And we remind you that...

The Healing Journey

December 31, 2024 We Are Not Alone We are touched by angelsAnd walk where angels tread.They will guide us, walk beside usThrough the days ahead.In the hours of darkness,When our dreams have...

The Healing Journey

December 30, 2024Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English writer born into a family of artists. She was the youngest of four children and during her life wrote devotional and children’s poems and...

The Healing Journey

December 29, 2024As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family today, we offer the following excerpt from the book “A Paradise of Gratitude.” Today in prayer Our Lady returned, and she began to tell...

The Healing Journey

December 28, 2024The following blog was written by Bob DeWitt two years ago for Pittsburgh Catholic Online and is worth sharing: Poem Comforts Those Grieving “In the last two years, Bill Mitchell...

The Healing Journey

December 27, 2024In our grief, God reaches out to us, even if we’re angry, and blame him for all the pain in our lives. He isn’t deterred. He reaches out and he keeps on reaching out because he’s...

The Healing Journey

December 26, 2024A Love Letter from Jesus My dear friend,How are you? I just had to send you this letter to tell you how much I love you and care about you. I saw you yesterday as you were walking...

The Healing Journey

December 25, 2024Two years after his wife was fatally burned when her dress caught fire, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s oldest son Charles was seriously wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church...

The Healing Journey

December 24, 2024“Sweet Little Jesus Boy” is a spiritual Christmas song that was composed by Robert MacGimsey in 1934. The first singer to record it was Lawrence Tibbett, but over the years it has...

The Healing Journey

December 23, 2024Late on Christmas Even when all the hubbub was over and the family was gone and the Feast of the Seven Fishes was finished, Joe sat in silence and looked at the lights on the...

The Healing Journey

December 22, 2024Patty’s beloved son John died of brain cancer at 36 years old on February 20, 2022. Throughout her life, she has known loss. Her mother died of cancer when Patty was pregnant with...

The Healing Journey

December 21, 2024For many years, Jan Richardson has been writing blessings, which she says offer insights into God’s often inscrutable providence so that we can “perceive the grace that threads...

The Healing Journey

December 20, 2024Ann was tired of hearing people say, “Get on with your life.” It had been more than two years since her beloved husband Paul died and after 70 years of marriage, the idea of “moving...

The Healing Journey

December 19, 2024The following reflection by Emily Clark originally appeared in Fairfield County Catholic in her regular column “Collecting Moments.” Still Christmas By Emily Clark I never expected,...

The Healing Journey

December 18, 2024What would Christmas be without Charles Dickens, the 19th-century English author who gave us many of the traditions and customs we cherish today? When we think of Dickens, we think...

The Healing Journey

December 17, 2024The following is an excerpt from a column titled “Sign from God?” by Carol Monaco, which appeared on the website Catholic Stand. During Christmas Eve Mass, an unexpected visitor was...

The Healing Journey

December 16, 2024While he was surfing the internet over the Christmas season, Jack came upon a prayer request at a website that broke his heart. It said: “I’m terribly lonely for the holidays. I...

The Healing Journey

December 15, 2024“There are so many Christmas angels out there, just waiting to do God’s will.” — Ann When Ann began her first year without her husband Clete, she sent an email of reassurance to all...

The Healing Journey

December 14, 2024“This will remain the Land of the Free only so long as it is the Home of the Brave.” — Elmer Davis Today is Wreaths Across America Day, and volunteers will place more than 2 million...

The Healing Journey

December 13, 2024The song “Scars in Heaven” is one of the most moving and beloved songs of the contemporary Christian rock group Casting Crowns. The song was written by Mark Hall, a youth pastor,...

The Healing Journey

December 12, 2024“Old friends … sat on the park bench like bookends.” — Paul Simon They were known as “the three amigos.” Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, they came to morning Mass together...

The Healing Journey

December 11, 2024“And on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come… Still, my soul will sing Your praise unending, ten thousand years and then forevermore…” —...

The Healing Journey

December 10, 2024“The Missionaries must be ready and willing to go and proclaim the love of God to the ends of the Earth.” — Blessed Maria Emilia Riquelme y Zayas The Missionary Sisters of the...

The Healing Journey

December 9, 2024It’s easy to think of the Virgin Mary as a saint who is somehow impervious to pain and disassociated from humanity. Of course, nothing is further from the truth. Her suffering was...

The Healing Journey

December 8, 2024“This pain leaves you without words.” — Pope Francis Pope Francis describes it as an inexpressible pain “that leaves you without words.” A pain that defies human logic. It is the...

The Healing Journey

December 7, 2024“Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace. Grief was not to be eliminated but seasoned and buoyed up with love...

The Healing Journey

December 6, 2024 “In God’s Kingdom are gifts we cannot yet comprehend — wonderful gifts of life and immortality — and when we enter it, we will experience abundance at every step. But the Kingdom is...

The Healing Journey

December 5, 2024When Joe saw his friend Dina’s obituary, he thought back to the first time he had met her and her husband Angelo at lunch in Southbury, where they lived in a senior residence. They...

The Healing Journey

December 4, 2024 Overcoming Life's Hardships O Lord, we call upon You in our time of sorrow,that You give us the strength and will to bear our heavy burdensuntil we can again feel the warmth and...

The Healing Journey

December 3, 2024“As long as I can I will look at this world for both of us, as long as I can, I will laugh with the birds, I will sing with the flowers, I will pray to the stars, for both of us.”–...

The Healing Journey

December 2, 2024An Advent Prayer for Someone You Know Who Is Struggling with Loneliness By Jennifer Waddle Father, as we remember the birth of your Son and the significance of His coming, I ask that...

The Healing Journey

December 1, 2024Charles Eugène de Foucauld de Pontbriand was born into an aristocratic family in Strasbourg in 1858. He was a French soldier, explorer and Catholic revert, who became a priest and...

The Healing Journey

November 30, 2024 Blessing of God's Grace by Kevin Smead This body wears a little moreWith every passing day,The evidence the end will comeFor this my house of clay. My sight grows dim, my hearing...

The Healing Journey

November 29, 2024The following reflection about shared grief was written by Mirabai Starr, who founded the online grief community Holy Lament: The Transformative Path of Loss and Longing, a “space...

The Healing Journey

November 28, 2024Joe drove to St. Michael Cemetery in Stratford, where his grandparents were buried. He hadn’t visited them in years, so he figured All Souls Day was a perfect time to pay his...

The Healing Journey

November 27, 2024 Almighty and eternal God,from whose love in Christwe cannot be parted,either by death or life,hear our prayers and thanksgivingsfor all whom we remember this day.Fulfill in them...

The Healing Journey

November 26, 2024In his book, “Trusting God in the Present,” the acclaimed author Fr. Jacques Philippe discusses the importance of being able to forgive our family members when occasions and...

The Healing Journey

November 25, 2024Jesus often said the beginning of spiritual growth is humility, and it is something that the saints have practiced throughout history. Books have been written about this fundamental...

The Healing Journey

November 24, 2024Pianist and composer Paul Cardall came into this world with half a heart. He had surgery the day he was born, April 24, 1973, and several more as a teenager. He knew he would...

The Healing Journey

November 23, 2024Rosemary’s brother died at 15 in a car accident, and she still thinks about him every day, years later, but something happened a long time ago that has special meaning for her. As...

The Healing Journey

November 22, 2024As a Hospice nurse, Trudy Harris was there to comfort many dying people. From her experiences, she wrote two best-selling books that have sold millions of copies. She recounted one...

The Healing Journey

November 21, 2024“What becomes of the broken-hearted who had love that’s now departed?”— Jimmy Ruffin Dr. Mary Neal chronicled her near-death experience from a kayaking accident in Chile in a 2011...

The Healing Journey

November 20, 2024For those who are grieving, the holidays can be incredibly challenging and emotionally difficult, according to Carolyn Killian, Director of Bereavement. “I’ve seen so many people...

The Healing Journey

November 19, 2024Claudy Philips was a Welsh violinist who died in poverty. However, because of his renown, he has a monument in St. Peter’s Collegiate Church in Wolverhampton, England. His epitaph...

The Healing Journey

November 18, 2024“We all have an obligation to pray for the souls in purgatory and our deceased family members and friends. This litany was written by Dr. Blanche Jennings Thompson, a Franciscan...

The Healing Journey

November 17, 2024“Pick somebody to pray for who is in pain … and don’t stop praying for them.” — Author unknown Rob just couldn’t get over the death of his wife. It had been a couple of years, and...

The Healing Journey

November 16, 2024Tree of Remembrance Scheduled at Cemetery Catholic Cemeteries of the Diocese of Bridgeport will once again light a Remembrance Tree during the Christmas season in honor of loved...

The Healing Journey

November 15, 2024“And it is only as God becomes more remote—a God who is all-loving only in the abstract, not in the sense of having suffered and died for us to rescue us from evil—that he seems...

The Healing Journey

November 14, 2024“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”— Harriet Beecher Stowe For 12 years, Thomas Moore was a monk in the Servites, a Catholic...

The Healing Journey

November 13, 2024“The sad part about getting old is that no one can see you’re still young on the inside.”— Anonymous When Lenny finally retired, he started going to daily Mass, and he was somewhat...

The Healing Journey

November 12, 2024 Weeping Over the Death of a Friend By Wang Wei After your burial on Stone Tower Mountain,The mourners in their chariots wind downward through dark pinesand cypresses.Your bones...

The Healing Journey

November 11, 2024Dear Lord Jesus,Today I bring to You the brokenness I experience in my mind, will and emotions. I bring to You my wounded heart over my loss. I admit to You, Lord, that I am...

The Healing Journey

November 10, 2024 “We find ourselves in darkness, yet we live in the light; we know sorrow, yet we have joy; we are burdened, yet we have wings to meet our God, the eternal light and life of all...

The Healing Journey

November 9, 2024“You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just...

The Healing Journey

November 8, 2024The following is excerpted from “Mother Angelica’s Answers, Not Promises,” which she wrote with Christine Allison: “Death is our transition from the temporary to the permanent. It is...

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Statue in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery