Funeral for a Stranger: Thoughts on Life and Love by Becca Stevens

Funeral for a Stranger: Thoughts on Life and Love Reviews

• 
  jaimedannie

  Becca shares her emotions and thoughts as she prepares for a funeral and what she experienced the day of the service. Everytime we attend a funeral, memorial or walk in a cemetery we are faced with all the grief we have ever experienced and the reality of our own coming death. For many this topic is considered dark or taboo, I appreciate Becca's perspective. Death will come for all of us and it's good and healthy to discuss our immortality. This book would be especially helpful for any hospice worker, pastor, or funeral home worker.
  We all have to decide where we will be for eternity. If you want to go to heaven Jesus is the only way. I love how Becca shares her raw thoughts and makes herself vunerable as she opens her heart to her reader.
• 
  Hollyn Lentz

  A beautiful little book about humanity, faith, love, grief, death, and life.
  
  "Heaven in God's memory. We are preserved in the memory of Love that is big enough to contain all of creation for all time. No one is forgotten, because everyone is beloved. Nothing can touch the truth of God's love for us or erase us from the memory of God"
  
  "We can choose the pain of loving people, even in death, or we can choose the pain of living without love. I will always take the first kind of pain, because sometimes it is bigger than I am. God bless all the lovers, the mothers and daughters, and the friends who are carrying the pain of saying goodbye"
• 
  Laura

  I didn't realize what this book was really about when I brought it home. I am not giving this book a rating because I don't think it would be fair, but I do want to give a few comments.
  
  I picked it up because I loved the title and I knew it would be a quick read. The author tells the story of her agreeing to be the minister at the funeral of a stranger. She points out right away that, as an Episcopal minister, she is "not obligated to bury people who are not part of my congregation." She seems conflicted with whether to minister for a stranger or instead spend time with her family - and choosing between work and family is not an uncommon struggle for the average working parent. As a working mom I strangely related to this, and was simultaneously unsettled to realize that as a minister she wasn't jumping out of her seat to rush to the aid of someone in need, stranger or not.
  
  I found her point of view fascinating, and if anything I take away from this book a renewed impression that many religious leaders are indeed just normal people who have their own flaws, histories, and personal judgments of others. She is, after all, very honest in giving her impressions of the events and people around. She provides her own interesting personal history and is somewhat funny in her honest, light ribbing of those who think they have personal conversations with God.
  
  I would not recommend this to the average non-religious person such as myself, but I would expect a Christian would find this light read enjoyable, and hopefully it would encourage him/her to show a little kindness to strangers.
• 
  Amy Neftzger

  This book is filled with thought provoking passages as a minister describes her experience officiating at a funeral for a woman she never knew. The author discuses how death impacts all of us and how we are all dependent upon strangers in both life and death. Even if you're not facing the death of a loved one, this book may be helpful in making sense of life.
• 
  Tanja Walker

  I expected this to be more of a how-to book--in my ministry I am far more likely to be asked to do the funerals of strangers than people I know. But this was such much more, especially about loving the stranger, what it means to face death, and life. I will be more mindful now as I attend the funerals of strangers I encounter in my hospice ministry.
• 
  Amy Young

  Heard about this from a review on CT
  
  Wanting to say "no" to presiding over this funeral, Steven agrees and i able to reflect on humanity and ritual precisely because she doesn't know the woman.
• 
  Sarah

  The subtitle is "reflections on life and love," but they could have added "grief" in there somewhere--that is what this book primarily deals with.
• 
  Michelle

  This book spoke volumes to me as a minister who reaches out to families I do not know during times of grief. It put holy words to my deep feelings of gratitude.
• 
  Robin Roberts

  It was sad reflection of love and life as she prepared for a stranger's funeral. Made me sad