A loss can be a devastating experience. Campus Ministers are available to anyone from the Marquette community who needs support following a death or other loss.

If you are experiencing a loss of someone or something in your life regardless of when this loss occurred, it is our hope these resources may be a place to support your process of healing.

COMMUNICATE / BE LISTENED TO – When you are experiencing grief, you may need to find someone to listen to you and your grief experience. Who in your life can you share your fears, your sorrows, your thoughts so that you have a place to put word and language to this experience?

LISTEN – Just as you need to be listened to as you communicate your grief experience, be open to listen to other ideas and personal stories to find resources as you navigate your own healing.

Communicate with a trained stranger

Most people in society connect with a counselor or mental health professional to work through their personal issues. This is a good time to remind yourself that it is “ok” to seek professional help as you navigate through grief. The Marquette University Counseling Center is open to using social distance communication methods to best help you.

Campus Ministers, hall ministers, and affiliated ministers are also here to support you in your journey.

Contact any of these options to communicate with someone aligned to your faith tradition or someone you may know who can help.

Communicate with a friend/family member

There are many people experiencing grief like you. To risk asking for help from those you know can be both daunting and truly a blessing. Let people you know, know. This is also an area where you may find people trying to tell you advice or ideas that are not what you need. They also may have the words that finally free your heavy heart. Be open to both. Do not assume that people do not want to hear your grief words. Think about it, if someone shared their words with you, you would welcome them. Right?

Communicate through writing words/Journal

Putting words and expression to thoughts, feelings and emotions crowding your thinking, can relieve a lot of the stress of grief, enabling you a clearer path through this tough time.

Suggestions for topics include: writing to a person you lost, writing about the person or experience as you record your memories, writing a letter about your person or experience to either a real or imagined recipient (i.e., writing to your future child the stories and thoughts around your Aunt that you lost), or simply writing freely all that you are experiencing with no direction or purpose can be a good release of emotions and a good process for healing.

Other resources

There are so many valuable stories and experiences out there that can be helpful to you. Much like your academic research, find sources that speak to you and guide you as you need, discard those that do not. Here are a few helpful resources. 

**Remember – your experience is unique and your own. To compare or try to follow someone else’s grief path is not helpful. Grab ideas, try to see another point of view, and learn the language of grief. This is your journey and your path working through your grief.

Audio resources:

• Submit Prayer Requests with Marquette University
• “Seeking God When We Seem Lost in Grief” Mary Ann Vail, recording from Creighton University online ministries
• “Prayer in the Time of Anxiety”
• “5 Prayers for a Grieving Heart”
• Covid-19 Good Grief Resources and Updates
• Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper’s beautiful conversation about grief
• A "Toolkit" from the Family and Youth Institute
• “Coping with loss and bereavement: An Islamic perspective”
• How to Deal with Loss or Grief of Loved Ones
• We don’t “move on” from grief. We move forward with it – Ted Talk by Nora McInerny
• Losing a best friend – dealing with loss, grief, and pain – Marla Fay
• Research “Dad Rock Radio” – two sisters (Jenn and Nang Walters) use their father’s music as a backdrop for grief and loss through a podcast. Innovative. Relevant. Personal.
• "The complexity of grief and dealing with the death of a loved one during Covid-19 lockdowns"

Published books:

• “The Language of Loss,” by Natalie Kathryn Sanchez – A recent Marquette graduate