Good morning to you, beloved ones. It is a joy to be here with you in this way. You might be familiar with my words, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” [Matthew 5:4, NIV]. There are several things I wish to say about mourning: It is about releasing and letting go. It is deeper than what happens when you lose someone close to you. Mourning is purging.

I mourned when Lazarus died. I had to purge my grief that Lazarus was dead so that I could call his living self back to his body. I could not raise a dead body, as something dead no longer contains life. I could only raise a body filled with life. I had to purge the human belief that once a body is empty of life, it cannot hold life again. You, and I mean you, can only raise the body of someone you know is still living. When you purge the belief in decay, the cells of the body awaken and the spirit of the person can come again.

Mourning also occurs when you recognize your shadow self and the ways you treated others that were incongruent with how you wanted to live your life in love. You didn’t realize the shadow part was there until it was revealed. When you are stricken with grief because of what you discover about yourself, release it and move into mourning. The grief is about your realization that you were not acting in accordance with who you thought you were. Mourning purges that grief so that you can recognize who you truly are and act accordingly. You have gone through this process many times in your spiritual journey.