Loss. It's a word that many of us fear and few of us can evade. It stalked Gerald Sittser one night and struck with full fury on a lonely road in Idaho. In an instant, a tragic accident claimed three generations of his family: his mother, his wife, and his young daughter. But this is not a book about one man's sorrow. Rather, it is a moving meditation on the losses we all suffer and the grace that can transform us. A Grace Disguised plumbs the depth of our sorrows, whether due to illness, divorce, or the loss of someone we love. The circumstances are not important; what we do with those circumstances is. In coming to the end of ourselves, we can come to the beginning of a new life - one marked by spiritual depth, joy, compassion, and a deeper appreciation of simple blessings. If your soul aches, you may be on a journey that will stretch your faith, your understanding of the meaning of life, and your knowledge of God. If you let it, your sorrow will increase your capacity to live well, to love life, and to experience joy, not after the darkness but even in the midst of it" -- www.books.google.co.nz

This is a very wise book. Sittser deals thoughtfully and warmly with the various aspects of grief he explores. Most interestingly, he explains how the vast feeling of sorrow he felt upon loss expanded his soul's capacity for all feeling, because he faced it rather than shrinking from it. Not having experienced the death of someone very close to me, I didn't personally empathize with his process and experience of grief; but I appreciate the gift of understanding the process better from a distance because of hearing his story.

Di's favourite book!

This is one that Jan Klostermann (who lost her flight-instructor daughter to a small plane crash) recommended....It was written by a man whose wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. (Southminster Presbyterian Church Library, Des Moines, WA)

Would not recommend this book. He takes the premise that you will never be over your grief; it will always overshadow your life. If this is true, why read such a book? He negates the Grace of God or the healing that we can experience. We can heal, we can become stronger. His first 6 chapters are a barrage of grief and pain. He overworks making certain that the reader experiences all his pain and suffering. Yet as the 6th chapter draws to a close the tone and writing style changes so dramatically you have to wonder if a ghost writer just took over. He compares all manner of grief as though they are all equal. The rape victim, molestation victim, the divorced individual, the person who loses a loved one in tragedy and the person who get’s laid off from their job all experience the same loss. Of course in the next chapter he changes this viewpoint and then flips back and forth as the chapters change. His timeline is also challenging. There are, by my count, 21 references that refer to events 2 to 4 years after the accident that prompted the book. Yet the book seems to go into print and be copyrighted 4 years after the accident. When was the book actually written – a week before it went into print or were these events nice stories made up by the author? ( )