In the Two Hearts Press released Kelly Breaux’s autobiography, Hiding In the Upper Room
Kelly and Ryan Breaux were given a cross that no parent should have to carry…watching two of their children die before their very eyes. For years, Kelly battled numbness, despair, and anger, repeatedly asking God '“why?” Though Catholic, she avoided attending Mass where she was haunted by images of the funerals, by other little children who resembled her own children, by people looking at her with sympathetic eyes or asking questions she didn’t want to answer. Until one night when God visited Kelly in a dream and gave her the answer, she’d been asking of Him. This dream punctured the ice of grief that Kelly had been trapped under and felt a deep longing for intimacy with God. Through the sacraments of the Catholic Church, God has given Kelly a way to turn her grief into a mission of love and healing.
“God did not create me to be a docked ship but one that sails the sea and travels the lands of child loss.”
Let Yourself Be Loved:
Big Lessons from a Little Life
Elizabeth Leon is the Director of Family Support for Red Bird Ministries. Her book, LET YOURSELF BE LOVED: Big Lessons from a Little Life, explores the heart of a mother carrying a baby to term with the certainty of death. Diagnosed with trisomy 18, John Paul Raphael Leon lived only twenty-eight hours and ten minutes. Elizabeth Leon writes with unflinching honesty about the tsunami of grief and the exquisite agony of choosing to live and love in its wake. With vulnerability and courage, she surrenders to God's plan and learns to embrace the fragility of life and the nearness of death. In the depression that follows her son's death, Elizabeth is forced to examine her own brokenness and confront the holy mystery of John Paul Raphael's short and shining life: in the light of faith, our deepest sufferings are an invitation to joy. Let Yourself Be Loved is a road map to find that joy in the shadow of the valley of death.
Nursery of Heaven: Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss In the Lives of the Saints and Today’s Parents
Miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss happen more often than we realize, leaving many to suffer in isolation. Nursery of Heaven is a companion to help those grieving from child loss as they search for comfort and meaning. This book also provides practical wisdom for our pastors, family, and friends to help those who are grieving their child find healing. Authors, Cassie Everts, Patrick O’Hearn.
A THOUSAND POUNDS Finding the Strength to Live and Love Under the Weight of Unbearable Loss
by Brianne Edwards
Crushed by the weight of life-changing loss, how do we find the strength to carry unbearable grief with peace? This is a book that will pierce your heart and leave you changed. It is a journey from debilitating grief to a new depth of healing and hope.
With raw authenticity, Brianne Edwards shares her story of the loss of her son and gives readers a powerful encounter with the heart of a bereaved mother. Yet A Thousand Pounds is much more than a memoir.
JOURNEY IN LOVE
A Catholic Mother’s Prayer after a Prenatal Diagnosis
by Kathryn Anne Casey
In Journey in Love: A Catholic Mother's Prayers after Prenatal Diagnosis, you will find a sensitive, supportive resource from an author who knows this suffering firsthand. Kathryn Anne Casey walks with you through the stages of grief, helps you to pray even when you feel you cannot, sheds new light on the comfort and grace of the Church’s traditional prayers, and provides meditations tied to the liturgical year.
WHAT GOD HAD EMPTIED
How I Found Hope in My Children’s Diagnosis
by Kathryn Anne Casey
A memoir of the two years during which Kathryn Anne Casey became a mother to a medically-complex son, faced another unexpected pregnancy with a fatal prenatal diagnosis, and expectantly awaited the birth and death of her daughter. This book illustrates the lesson that when we commit our lives to Christ, he will ask us to walk the way he walked, the mysterious journey through the cross and hope of resurrection.
Ave Maria Press released Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers When a Loved One Dies by Suicide
When someone you love dies by suicide, confusion, shame, and guilt often add to the emotional upheaval and spiritual turmoil in your life. When a Loved One Dies by Suicide was written by Catholics who have lost a loved one due to suicide. The contributors share their personal stories of loss, of learning to cope with the crushing grief, of finding comfort in faith and community, and of discovering hope as they began to move forward again.
Ave Maria Press released Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers Responding to Suicide, A Pastoral Handbook for Catholic Leaders
More than a dozen leading mental health practitioners, Catholic theologians, and pastoral care experts share how best to respond to suicide as leaders in parishes, schools, healthcare systems, and other Church settings. The book offers a cross-disciplinary approach that provides basic information about the central role of mental health in suicide and clarifies Church teaching about suicide, funerals and burials for those who have died by suicide, and their afterlife.
The Grief of Dads
Support and Hope for Catholic Fathers Navigating Child Loss
For a variety of reasons—including cultural norms, a man’s traditional role in the family, and lack of support—a father’s grief often fades into the background when his child dies. The Grief of Dads was written by Catholic fathers just like you who have lost a child at any age and from any circumstance. These dads offer the support, spiritual guidance, and companionship you need as you make your way through grief.
The Grief of Dads is an important resource to help you know that you are not alone and to work through loss and the upheaval of deep grieving with help from men who have been there, too.
Authors Patrick O’Hearn and Bryan Feger, along with Ryan Breaux of Red Bird Ministries—an organization that guides individuals and couples through the trauma of losing a child—want to normalize conversations about men’s grief.
Drawing on the richness of the Catholic faith, they offer stories from the men in the Bible and from male saints who knew the pain of losing a child and yet found hope and healing in God. The authors share their own stories and the experiences of seven other fathers who lean on their faith and seek healing with help from the sacraments, the Bible, fellow Catholics, and the devotional practices of the Church.
The book includes resource lists, journaling space, prayers, spiritual reflections, and letters of spiritual support, as well as guidance for friends, family, and pastors of grieving fathers. Kelly Breaux, cofounder and president of Red Bird Ministries, wrote a chapter for wives as well.