Reply #30: I would simply call you a seeker...

[TreasonousBastard]

and you are asking the questions everyone has been asking since we first became a sentient species.

Even for the most faithful, there are no words or beliefs that can ease the pain and grief of losing a child. It's simply to much for any of us. We ask why the merciful and loving God we worship would allow this tragedy to happen. We demand to know, and we sometimes rage at God.

The answer, ultimately, is within ourselves. Perhaps our religion gives us some additional strength, perhaps we find it elsewhere, but we find that our lives are to be lived here on earth, and whatever the next step is, it is most likely a better place but one we are not allowed to know yet.

Tomorrow, your granddaughter will not be suffering or in pain, but you and your family will be in great pain. Wherever she is, it will be a blessed place, but you will be left in this "vail of tears." It is for the living that you will find the strength to carry on.


For what it's worth, long before I was born my grandfather died and my grandmother was told by a priest exactly how many years he would suffer in purgatory for not going to mass, and she should start going more herself. That announcement drove my grandmother and father out of the Catholic church for good, but they still retained some faith in a less vindictive God.

Ignore, if possible, any talk of eternal parboiling and, while seeking, remember that any God worth worshipping would only look kindly on an innocent child or seeker. No one gets condemned for asking honest questions.