By Danielle Roman
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May 7, 2025
I want to share something very personal with you—my journey through loss, grief, and ultimately, resurrection. It’s a journey that has mirrored, in a very real way, the Paschal Mystery: Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. Good Friday My own Good Friday came with the unexpected death of my mum in December 2020 - right in the middle of the pandemic, which was a trauma. My mum struggled with alcoholism, and had done for about 10 years or so before her death. And as anyone who’s walked that road with a loved one knows, it’s a disease that doesn’t just affect the person—it affects everyone around them. I carried a mix of emotions: love (I loved mum so much), sorrow, helplessness, frustration, and guilt. Also, shame, but I have come to realise that it is not my shame to carry. And by talking about it I can perhaps encourage others who are suffering to reach out. I read a piece of literature from Al-Anon (a support group for for friends and family of alcoholics). It was called ‘The Merry Go Round Named Denial’ . Each loved one in an alcoholic’s life play roles such as the enabler, the provoker, the victim, and as long these people stay on the merry go round, nothing will change – so it was time to get off the merry go round. Cutting contact with mum wasn’t an easy thing to do. I had had conversations with friends, family, and my spiritual director before I made this decision. After a few weeks of no contact, we had a small glimmer of hope of a reconciliation a few days before she died (she had wanted to change and get better — and had made a start), but ultimately, I had lost the chance of that too. When she died, I remember the weight of it feeling unbearable. I didn’t just lose my mum—I lost the chance for a future I had hoped for, healing I had prayed for, and conversations we never got to have. Good Friday is a day of brutal honesty. Jesus, too, was abandoned, misunderstood, and made to suffer. The cross is not just a symbol of death—it’s a symbol of the love that stays even in the face of unimaginable pain. And at that point in my life, I had no answers. Just the cross. Just the question: Where is God in this? Holy Saturday After her death, came a long, dark silence. My own Holy Saturday. This was a time when faith didn’t feel comforting—it felt distant. That being said, going to church was only a handful of things I could do. It felt familiar, and there were no surprises - I knew what was going to happen at every Mass - I hadn’t completely shut God out. After a short period, people around me moved on (they have their own lives) but I felt stuck in this empty, echoing silence. I was overwhelmed with grief, and I didn’t know how to process the pain. I didn’t have the words for it. All I could do was sit in the heaviness. I did find support within the grief community, but ultimately, everyone's grief is unique, and that in itself is a lonely place. Like the women at the empty tomb, I felt so alone. So abandoned and afraid. I came across a quote from a Christian writer called K.J. Ramsey. She lives with Ankylosing Spondylitis - a form of arthritis which can leave you struggling to do basic tasks. She wrote a book called This Too Shall Last - finding grace when suffering lingers. I listened to a podcast she was in, and she said something that gave language to what I was feeling. She said that “Jesus went to the place of wordlessness for us.” That hit me. Because that’s what Holy Saturday is: a day without words, without answers. A day where everything feels lost and still. And silent. But that’s the beauty of our faith—Jesus doesn’t just meet us in the joy or in the strength. He meets us in the weakness, in the quiet, in the places where we have no words left to pray. And in every part of our own wordlessness, He is there. Holy Saturday is often the forgotten day. It’s the space where nothing seems to happen—and yet, Christ is at work. He descended into death itself. He entered the silence so that our silence would never be empty. And though I couldn’t see it at the time, even in that darkness, God had not let go of me. Easter Sunday I didn’t wake up one day and feel better. That’s not how it happened. But over time, through moving house (a new start) prayer, community, support—and honestly, through sitting with the pain rather than running from it—I began to sense something changing. Slowly, I started to see how Christ was present in my suffering all along. He hadn’t abandoned me—He was there, in the heartbreak, in the suffering. In the grief. I came to understand something I had only known intellectually before: that suffering, when united with Christ, is not meaningless. In fact, it can become a path to healing—not only for us, but for others. Jesus didn’t erase His wounds in the resurrection—He transformed them. And somehow, He was transforming mine too. It doesn’t mean my life is perfect now - far from it. But it means hope is real. I’ve found peace, purpose, and even joy—not because the pain vanished (there are some days when it hurts like it did on the day mum died), but because it was redeemed. It has become a passion of mine to provide a space where people can talk about their grief in a non-judgemental, safe space. When I recently went on a bereavement ministry training course, they said a quote from Exodus when the Israelites were in the middle of the wilderness: "Remove your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5 Our moments of deep suffering—where we feel lost, silent, and undone—can become holy ground because Jesus enters them with us. So, we’re invited to take off our sandals—to pause, to reverence the mystery, and to trust that God is doing something in the dark, even when we can’t see it. Each of us, in our own way, will experience Good Fridays—moments of loss, betrayal, heartbreak. We will endure Holy Saturdays—times when God seems absent, and hope feels lost. But the promise of our faith is that Easter Sunday always follows. Death does not have the final word. I know that I will see mum again - we will have our reconciliation. And that gives me hope. So, if you are in the middle of your Good Friday, or waiting in your Holy Saturday—take heart. Resurrection is real. And Jesus walks with you through it all. Danielle Roman is the Chaplaincy Administrator at Leeds Trinity University