Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Bruised and Wounded: Struggling to Understand Suicide
    Bruised and Wounded: Struggling to Understand Suicide
    Bruised and Wounded: Struggling to Understand Suicide
    Ebook51 pages55 minutes

    Bruised and Wounded: Struggling to Understand Suicide

    By Ronald Rolheiser

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The New York Times bestselling author of The Holy Longing turns his attention to one of the stigmas of our time.
    “Unique insights on the nature of suicide, its devastating effects, and God’s embracing love throughout. Fr. Ron is exactly who I would have wanted at my side when my daughter died.”
    —Marjorie Antus, author of My Daughter, Her Suicide, and God: A Memoir of Hope

    “Don’t let the size of this book fool you into thinking it doesn’t have much to say about suicide. Each page—each sentence—is rich in insight, wisdom, compassion, and most of all, comfort. Ronald Rolheiser gently dismantles the age-old myths and taboos associated with suicide, and gives brokenhearted survivors of suicide loss genuine reasons for hope.”
    —Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California

    A new way of understanding death by suicide with chapters on
    • Removing the Taboo
    • Despair as Weakness rather than Sin
    • Reclaiming the Memory of our Loved One

    Ronald Rolheiser is a Catholic priest, internationally renowned speaker and spiritual writer whose books appeal to Christians of all backgrounds and spiritual seekers of all kinds. He is the author of several books and the award-winning weekly column “In Exile” carried by more than seventy newspapers worldwide.

    “Ronald Rolheiser's books have changed my life. This one will do the same for many readers desperate for mercy, understanding, and the love of God.”
    — James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherParaclete Press
    Release dateJan 1, 2018
    ISBN9781640601024
    Bruised and Wounded: Struggling to Understand Suicide

    Read more from Ronald Rolheiser

    Related to Bruised and Wounded

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Conflicting Narratives: The Millions Interviews Courtney Denelle

      Aug 31, 2022

      "Writing this novel was very much cutting along the nerve." The post Conflicting Narratives: The Millions Interviews Courtney Denelle appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      BOOKMARK THIS read…listen…stream

      Oct 27, 2020

      Emotional Resilience In the Age of Rage, Feels & Freak-Outs Ralph De La Rosa • Shambhala Spiritual bypassing, a term first coined in psychology, refers to misusing spirituality or wisdom teachings by zeroing in on their “feel-good” aspects, while min

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Dark Side of Awe

      Jan 29, 2024

      The Dark Side of Awe
      10 min read

    • Article

      Medicalising Emotions

      Aug 14, 2019

      Medicalising Emotions
      9 min read

    • Article

      Q&A William Peters

      Nov 26, 2020

      Q&A William Peters
      4 min read

    • Article

      Someone I Love Is Hurting

      Jan 24, 2023

      Someone I Love Is Hurting
      4 min read

    • Article

      Scars Of Sexuality

      Apr 22, 2021

      When we think of psychological trauma, we tend to think of huge life events that have been witnessed or experienced, leading, at worst, to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although others might not experience PTSD, they may present with residua

      2 min read

    • Article

      Man On Fire

      Nov 19, 2020

      Man On Fire
      4 min read

    • Article

      Overcoming Thoughts Of Suicide

      Jun 8, 2018

      Today’s contributor shares spiritual ideas that enabled her to help a friend struggling with the question of whether his life was worth living.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Death Defining

      Feb 12, 2021

      Death Defining
      11 min read

    • Article

      Transformative Grief

      Dec 25, 2023

      Transformative Grief
      14 min read

    • Article

      Death Defining

      Feb 12, 2021

      Death Defining
      11 min read

    • Article

      Death Defining

      Feb 12, 2021

      Death Defining
      11 min read

    • Article

      When GRIEVING goes GLOBAL

      Mar 1, 2024

      When GRIEVING goes GLOBAL
      4 min read

    • Article

      Rooted IN Compassion

      Dec 17, 2019

      Rooted IN Compassion
      7 min read

    • Article

      Grief Is Evidence of Love

      Dec 20, 2021

      Grief Is Evidence of Love
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Bruised and Wounded

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Bruised and Wounded - Ronald Rolheiser

      INTRODUCTION

      A friend of mine recently attended the funeral of a man who had taken his own life. At the end of the service the deceased man’s brother spoke to the congregation. After highlighting his brother’s generosity and sensitivity and sharing some anecdotes that helped celebrate his life, he went on to say something about the manner of his death. Here, in effect, are his words:

      When someone is stricken with cancer, one of three things can happen: Sometimes doctors can treat the disease and, in essence, cure it. Sometimes the medical professionals cannot cure the disease but can control it enough so that the person suffering from cancer can live with the disease for the rest of his or her life. Sometimes, however, the cancer is of a kind that cannot be treated. All the medicine and treatments in the world are powerless, and the person dies.

      Certain kinds of emotional depression work the same way: Sometimes they can be treated so that, in effect, the person is cured. Sometimes they cannot ever really be cured, but they can be treated in such a way that the person can live with the disease for his or her whole life. And sometimes, just as with certain kinds of cancer, the disease is untreatable, unstoppable; no intervention by anyone or anything can halt its advance. Eventually it kills the person, and there is nothing anyone can do. My brother’s depression was of that kind, the terminal kind.

      This can be helpful, I believe, for any of us who have suffered the loss of a loved one to suicide. All death unsettles us, but suicide leaves us with a very particular series of emotional, moral, and religious scars. It brings with it an ache, a chaos, a darkness, and a stigma that has to be experienced to be believed. Sometimes we deny it, but it’s always there, irrespective of our religious and moral beliefs. Indeed, as part of its darkness and stigma, suicide not only takes our loved ones away from us, but it also takes away our true memory of them. The gift that they brought into our lives is now no longer celebrated. We never again speak with pride about their lives. Their pictures come off the wall, photos of them get buried deep inside drawers that we never open again, their names are less and less mentioned in conversation, and of the manner of their death we rarely speak. Suicide takes our loved ones away from us in more ways than we sometimes admit.

      And there is no easy answer for how to reverse that, though a better understanding of suicide can be a start.

      Not all suicides are of the same kind. Some suicides come about because the person is too arrogant and too hard of heart to want to live in this world. But that, I submit, is the exception, not the norm. Most suicides, certainly all the cases that I have known, come about for the opposite reason—namely, the person is too bruised and oversensitive to have the resiliency needed to continue to cope with life. In these cases, and that is the vast majority of suicides, the cause of death can pretty accurately be termed as cancer, emotional cancer. Just as with physical cancer, the person dying of suicide is taken out of this life against his or her will. Death by suicide is the emotional equivalent of cancer, a stroke, or a heart attack. Thus, its patterns are the same as those of cancer, strokes, and heart attacks. Death can

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1