When her older sister, Emily, died in a rock climbing accident in 2006, Lauren tended to her grieving parents, Kay and Frank. Later, Lauren demanded answers from the Rev. Broderick, asking her about Jesus.
“I need to know the real thing, not the stupid stuff!” Lauren told the minister. “The stuff you study. I need to see you every day. For an hour!”
–From a New Jersey article describing the funeral of Lauren Failla, age 25, who died on April 28 in a crocodile attack while she was snorkeling in India’s Andaman Islands.
I read the rest of the article and found nothing to explain Lauren’s quoted comments. I am going to go out on a limb here and assume she was demanding from her minister more than just the happy fluff normally handed out these days to grieving families? Good for her.
Rest in peace.
I’ll never forget Elizabeth Elliot’s admonition that in any overwhelming trial (of which she had many) it is the hymns that sustain us and remind us of God, His perfect nature, and His love; These are what carry us through those trials so severe that one can’t read Scripture, listen to advise, or even pray.
It is true.
Don
#1 thanks for reading the article, the context is in fact in there, although it may not have been clear the way it was presented.
It was what Lauren said in his response to the death of her older sister in a rock climbing accident in 2006.
I started my sermon with this quote this morning in a sermon on the Ascension. The degree to which the church (in the West anyway) shies away from the big meaty doctrines (with a precious few exceptions, think: Tim Keller, e.g.) is a tragedy of untold proportions.
3. Of course, glad to read it.
I understood it was in the aftermath of her sister’s death, but I found the quote to be pretty ambiguous as to what exactly she meant, probably as you say in the way it was presented more than the actual quote’s apparent meaning.
Being a Catholic, I’ve left instructions on my own blog for all to see for my eventual funeral, including a request for the priest to actually discuss the Four Last Things of Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell in his sermon.