Alive in the Word Empty Nest Time for Letting Go

Alive in the Word brings you resources to deepen your understanding of Scripture, offer meaning for your life today, and help you to pray and act in response to God’s word. Use any volume of Alive in the Word in the way best suited to you.

• For individual learning and reflection, consider this an invitation to prayerfully journal in response to the questions you find along the way. And be prepared to move from head to heart and then to action.
• For group learning and reflection, arrange for three sessions where you will use the material provided as the basis for faith sharing and prayer. You may ask group members to read each chapter in advance and come prepared with questions answered. In this kind of session, plan to be together for about an hour. Or, if your group prefers, read and respond to the questions together without advance preparation. With this approach, it’s helpful to plan on spending more time for each group session in order to adequately work through each chapter.
• For a parish-wide event or use within a larger group, provide each person with a copy of this volume, and allow time during the event for quiet reading, group discussion and prayer, and then a final commitment by each person to some simple action in response to what he or she learned.

When parents find themselves alone after their children move out of the house—or when anyone's loved one moves out of the home—they may experience a very real sense of loneliness, lack of purpose, and even grief. These prayerful reflections on the Joseph story, the incarnation, and the last discourse of Jesus offer comfort and challenge to anyone with an empty nest. The word of God has the power to help empty nesters change, let go, and love anew.