This morning, I read of a death of a young Marine to suicide. It reminded me of a post written sometime ago. Revisiting it here for the purposes of bringing light to the terrible loss to mental illness and suffering. From August 15, 2011.

I read a very poignant post this evening about the loss of a loved one to suicide. It rekindled memories of friends whose terrible decisions left such awful darkness in trade. How awful a curse to be so bereft of hope that death is comparative comfort.

Interestingly, today is the Feast of the Assumption; a holy day of obligation that Roman Catholics herald as a victory of life over death when the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed – body and soul – into Heaven. Suicide is the refutation of that very promise. A loss to suicide is as baffling as it is devastating.

For those of Faith, please pray for those suffering from mental illness. Pray for those groaning under the yoke of despair in recovering from a loss. Pray that it doesn’t come home to you.

For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them; we can love completely without complete understanding. — Norman Maclean