Mending the Heart

Rating:
Summary: Heartfelt indeed
Review: 'Mending the Heart' is a gem of a book that really touches the soul. Written by Fr. John Claypool, an Episcopal priest, this book has insight and inspiration about how to deal with some of the crucial hurts in life.

The book is very short, but do not let its brevity deceive. In a mere 68 pages of text, Claypool looks at the wounds of Grievance, Guilt, and Grief. These are primarily interpersonal situations - what happens when someone hurts us? When we hurt someone else? When we lose someone?

'Grievance, guilt, and grief are all part of our human journey from womb to tomb,' Claypool asserts, and as such assume a central importance in our lives. Combining personal stories, parishioner tales, stories from colleagues and other ministers (Frederick Buechner is one of his favourites), as well as a grounding in the liturgical/Book of Common Prayer tradition, Claypool navigates some of the various emotional responses an individual is likely to have due to such situations.

In each instance, Claypool invites us to examine our past realistically, while maintaining a perspective on the present and hope for the future. Claypool does not offer easy fixes or quick remedies, but realistically approaches the fact that some things cannot be repaired or put back the way it was.

With respect to the section on Grief, I have used this many times as chaplain at a retirement centre. Looking at life as a gift rather than a possession, we can gain a perspective in which to give greater thanks for what we have had, and despite the fact that grief is a very real and sometimes dangerous condition, there are periods of inspiration in which God can enter and lead out of the wilderness.

Published by the Cowley Press, this book bears the imprint of Cloister Books, so called as they fit the sense of meditation and slow journey that a monastic cloister can conjure. Despite the relatively few pages, this text nonetheless can take a long time to read, mark and inwardly digest, and is a little book that calls me again and again.

It is a true blessing to read.

Rating:
Summary: A real comfort for the grieving spouse
Review: Dr. Claypools book is easy to understand and apply to ones individual situation. It has been very helpful to me and I have already bought several copies and passed them on to close friends.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic on grief, guilt and forgiveness!
Review: If there is anyone who is more qualified or more compassionate to write about forgiveness after two chapters on Grievance and Guilt, then I hope to find that person! John starts with his friend Frederick Buechner in the utter despair of living with his Father's suicide. In one of his more recent sermons in Athens, GA. he refers to despair as the ultimate sickness of the soul. This can only be spoken as truth by one who has been in despair! I have heard John tell of his personal despair in the passing of his beloved young daughter, Laura Lue in traumatic years of 1968-1970.

That is his final story in this little jewel of stories. Three others stand out for me...the story of Sam Keen and his Father, his childhood puppy, Jiggs, his friend telling about Charlie's passing. When John repeats these stories in sermons or teaching classes it is like reliving the emotions of those experiences! As he often says it is not simply the experience... "it is the reflecting upon the experience!"

This intimately personal collection of stories makes for an incredible gift to someone in grief or despair! Positively his best yet...from an old friend: Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood