I wrote this liturgy several years ago when I was just beginning to emerge from a period of ‘prolonged grief’. Prolonged grief is a term that refers to an incompletely or unsuccessfully mourned loss or combination of losses or traumas. According to Judy Tatelbaum, author of "The Courage to Grieve", we are uneducated as to the processes of grief, and this ignorance contributes to the prolongation and incompleteness of our griefs.
There are four kinds of loss over which we grieve 1) the loss of a love object such as the death of a friend or relative, or the loss of a job, home or lifestyle, 2) cumulative loss, i.e., many small losses that eventually add up to a major depression, 3) symbolic loss, any event that causes a diminution of our self-esteem, and 4) anticipatory loss, in which we experience a sense of loss before the loss actually occurs, e.g , before a graduation, or before changing home locations.
Grieving is a part of our transition process from one stage of life to another. Grieving can even be an appropriate response to certain events in spiritual growth as well. ..
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