When It's Hard · Grief & Loss
Anniversary of a Loss
For when you feel: one year since, their birthday, hard date on the calendar
All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven. ... A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
The MinuteHomily
You were doing better, and then the calendar turned. The date arrives and grief walks back in without knocking, and you wonder if you have gone backwards. You haven't. Scripture says there is "a time to mourn, and a time to dance," and times return the way seasons do. This is winter making its annual visit, not proof that spring was fake. Let the day be what it is. Weep if it is a weeping day. Do something they loved if that is what remembering asks of you. And notice that mourning and dancing live inside the same sanctified year. The God who kept you through the first grief is here for this echo of it, gently and patiently walking you toward the time to dance.
By the MinuteHomily editors
A prayer for this moment
Lord, You know what today is. Meet me in the remembering, honor what I lost, and keep walking me toward the time to dance. Amen.
“We have loved them in life; let us not forget them in prayer.”
after St. Ambrose
Hymns for this moment
“How Can I Keep from Singing” · trad.
“In Paradisum” · chant
One small step
Do one thing today they loved (a meal, a song, a walk) as an act of remembrance.
Share this moment
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