A Liturgy for Returning to Daily Life After a Loss - Love Does That | Christian Spiritual Director Kari Bartkus

Hey, my friends. Welcome back to Let’s Encourage One Another.

This is another bonus episode, where we focus more on spiritual practices and things that build up our faith and relationship with God.

In this episode, we are going to go through a liturgical prayer together that was written for those who have experienced a loss and are about to leave that time of marked grieving and return to daily living. To go back to school, back to work. To start paying the bills again or resuming whatever schedule we had prior to the loss.

It is a difficult season to be in—still grieving, yet required to step back into life.

I know that so many of you have experienced loss recently—whether that was the loss of a loved one, job loss, loss of friendship, or loss of dreams you once held close. This liturgy is for you.

Don’t get lost in the word “liturgy.” It’s just a term for a form of public worship. A ritual. In this case, a prayer.

If you desire to explore the spiritual life even more, I invite you to join us in the Soul Care Group, where you receive a monthly email with a few spiritual practices to dive into that month. You get to test and see if any resonate with you. There’s never any pressure to make one work. Just an invitation to spend time with God and let Him speak to you. If you want to join us there in the Soul Care Group, you can sign up at lovedoesthat.org/soulcaregroup.

Also, if you’d like someone to walk with you through this season of loss and grief, someone to be present to your sorrow, your questions, I invite you to consider spiritual direction with me. Together, we seek God’s presence even amidst the pain. Because I fully believe He is there, even when you can’t see Him or hear Him. You can learn more at lovedoesthat.org/spiritualdirection.

So I will pause for a moment here as we begin our liturgical prayer, and I invite you to quiet the space around you, and quiet the space inside of you. If you need more time, just pause the podcast until you are ready to continue. I’ll leave a moment of silence at the end, as well. Just stay there with the Lord until you feel freedom to go back about your day.

[Silence]

[Prayer] *The liturgical prayer is pulled from Every Moment Holy, Volume II by Douglas Kaine McKelvey. It is not cited in its entirety, so please see the book for the full prayer.

[Silence]