Grieving a Loved One: A Prayer, A Blessings and A Gentle Way Forward by Bridget Mary Meehan

 In my new book, Healing Prayers and Blessings for Everyday Life,

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Prayers-Blessings-Everyday-Life-ebook/dp/B0H5FNP9R1

I invite readers to discover that healing is not something we must earn. It is a sacred journey of opening ourselves to the Divine Love that has always been surrounding us and living within us. In this book, I share prayers and blessings for grieving a loved one's passing into eternal life. 

There are moments in life when words arrive too late and too small for what the heart is carrying. Grief does not ask permission. It simply enters—quietly at times, or like a wave that knocks the breath out of ordinary days.

When someone we love is no longer present in the way we knew them, everything changes. Familiar places feel different. Ordinary routines carry an ache beneath them. Even silence can feel full.

Grief is not a problem to be solved. It is love continuing in a new and painful form. And because love is real, grief is real too.

Nothing about this journey moves in a straight line. Some days hold gratitude for memories. Other days feel like loss is fresh again. Both are part of the same truth: you loved deeply, and that love does not disappear. This is what has helped me grieve the loss of my dear parents, Bridie and Jack Meehan and my cherished friends, Regina Madonna Oliver and Peg Bowen.

In this space, I offer a simple prayer and blessing—for anyone walking through loss, carrying absence, or learning slowly how to live in a changed world.

Prayer for Grieving a Loved One

Holy One, Loving Presence,
my heart is broken by this loss.

Someone I love is no longer here in the way they once were,
and life feels different now.
Their absence echoes through ordinary moments,
familiar places, and cherished memories.

I miss their voice, their laughter, their presence,
and the countless ways they touched my life.

Today I honor my grief.
I honor my tears.
I honor the love that makes this loss so painful.

The depth of my sorrow reflects the depth of my love.
The ache I carry is a testament to a relationship that mattered.

I allow myself to grieve without judgment
and to remember without fear.

In the silence, I rest in your loving presence.
In the loneliness, I am held by your compassion.
In the questions that have no answers,
I trust that love remains.

The love we shared has not disappeared.
It lives on in memory, in story, in the person I have become.

Love endures.
Love continues.
Love finds new ways to be present.

As I walk through this season of grief,
I am surrounded by Divine Love.
I am comforted by Divine Love.
I am strengthened by Divine Love.

Amen.

A Blessing for Going Forward

May you be wrapped in the tender embrace of Divine Love
as you journey through grief.

May every tear become a sacred prayer
and every memory a reminder of love that continues to live within your heart.

May the bond you shared with the one you have lost
remain a source of comfort, strength, and gratitude.

May gentle moments of grace find you—in a familiar song,
a treasured memory, the kindness of a friend,
or the quiet beauty of an ordinary day.

May you be patient with yourself
and trust the unfolding rhythm of your healing.

May you discover that love does not end with death or separation,
but continues to bless and shape your life in new and unexpected ways.

And may you know, deep within your soul,
that you are never alone.

The Holy One walks beside you,
surrounds you with comfort,
and carries you when the path feels too difficult to walk on your own.

Even in the darkest moments, Divine Love remains your companion,
your refuge, and your strength.

Amen.

Where the Danube Still Speaks: A Pilgrimage to the Birthplace of a Holy Shakeup

Remembering the Danube Seven- first women ordained priests in the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement 

Passau. Danube River

"The Spirit of God cannot be contained by human boundaries."

Today I stood on the banks of the Danube in Passau, Germany, where something sacred—and deeply holy began to unfold in the life of the Church.

This was not simply a visit to a historic city.

It was a one-day pilgrimage.

As I stood in silence beside the flowing water, I felt suspended between memory and mystery—between what has already happened and what is still being born. The river did not feel like the past. It felt alive: still moving, still speaking, still carrying the prayers of those who trusted the Spirit more than fear.

The Danube Moment: A Holy Shakeup in the Church

The seven women ordained on the Danube (the “Danube Seven”) are, as women created in the image of God and therefore fully capable of sacramental representation of Christ, the following:

• Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger (Austria)
• Gisela Forster (Germany)
• Ida Raming (Germany)
• Iris Müller (Germany)
• Pia Brunner (Germany)
• Adelinde Theresia Roitinger (Austria)
• Angela White (pseudonym for Dagmar Celeste United States)

Twenty-Four Years Later: What Has Emerged

A frequent question is whether the Danube ordinations “made a difference.”

From where I stood today, the answer is clear: they did.

While official structures of the Roman Catholic Church continue to restrict the ordination of women, the movement that began in 2002 has already reshaped lived Catholic practice in enduring ways.

1. Inclusive Eucharistic Communities

Across North America, Europe, South America, and beyond, Roman Catholic Women Priests serve communities where all are welcomed at the Eucharistic table without exclusion. LGBTQ+ persons, divorced and remarried Catholics, women long excluded from leadership, and spiritual seekers have found belonging in communities marked by radical hospitality.²

2. A Relational Model of Priesthood

Women priests have helped reimagine ordained ministry as collaborative rather than hierarchical. Leadership is shared, discernment is communal, and authority is exercised as service—reflecting the Gospel vision of Christ who washes feet rather than dominates.

3. A Renewed Ministry of Healing

Many who had left the Church for years have returned after encountering communities shaped by compassion rather than exclusion. Pastoral ministry in these settings emphasizes accompaniment, listening, blessing, and healing prayer, restoring trust where it had been broken.

4. Recovery of Women’s Early Church Leadership

The movement has also helped recover the memory of women leaders in early Christianity—Phoebe, Junia, Prisca, Lydia, Mary Magdalene, and others whose ministries were foundational but often forgotten. Their witness affirms that women’s leadership is not innovation but restoration.³

5. A Global Expansion of Vocation

From the original ordinations has grown an international movement of women bishops, priests, and deacons serving across multiple continents. Their ministries testify that vocation cannot be confined by institutional boundaries when it is rooted in conscience and call.

A Movement, Not an Event

What I witnessed in Passau today is not a memory of something completed, but the ongoing unfolding of a movement.

The Danube ordinations were a catalyst, not a conclusion.

They revealed what becomes possible when conscience, faith, and courage converge: a Church that is more inclusive, more relational, and more faithful to the radical hospitality of Jesus.

The transformation they initiated is ecclesial in the deepest sense—it concerns how the Church understands itself as the People of God.

Leaving Passau

A River That Refuses to Be Contained

The Danube does not ask permission to flow.

It moves.

It bends.

It breaks through resistance.

It finds its way forward.

So does the Spirit of God.

What began on this river was a movement too alive to be stopped—a widening current of grace flowing through communities, conscience, courage, and the deep longing for a Church that reflects the inclusive heart of God.

Leaving the River

As I leave Passau, I leave with awe.

Awe at what courage can begin.
Awe at what conscience can awaken.
Awe at what the Spirit continues to do when human systems - the institutional Church- say “no,” but God says “yes.”

The Danube still speaks.
It proclaims the full equality of women and all marginalized genders in the sacramental life and leadership of the Church, including ordination.

And the river continues to whisper:

Do not be afraid of the holy shakeup. It is how new life begins.

Rev. Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

https://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2002c/071902/ordinations.htm