By Grief Refined: Letters to a Widow

I wish the publisher would reprint this book. Alice von Hildebrand's "By Love Refined," for brides is well known and easily obtained. "By Grief Refined" is as well written, if briefer, and I stumbled upon it! I had no idea she'd written on this topic, although she became a widow in 1977 when her husband, Dietrich von Hildebrand, died. This book is in the same form as "By Love Refined." Lily, a widow, writes to a younger widow in reply to her letters. The chapter titles indicate the subject of the new widow's letters, and the chapters consist of Lily's letters of reply. As a believing Catholic, von Hildebrand offers widows sound guidance and well-founded consolation and comfort; she refers to the loss of loved ones by St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and--most frequently--the widow St. Jane Frances de Chantal and her incomparable spiritual director, St. Francis de Sales. This book certainly achieved its author's purpose: to comfort even a few widows as they mourn and learn to live through their loss with Christian hope and charity.