Joyful Again is a spiritual program for widows and widowers who want to find joy in living again.
Our Mission
JOYFUL AGAIN!
Joyful Again! is a spiritual program for widows and widowers who want to resolve the normal grief they feel after losing their spouse and who want to begin to start to live fully again.
This self-help process toward healing is fostered by trained peer ministers who have experienced the pain of loss themselves and have moved forward in their healing journey.
Chapters
Over the years, our program has served thousands of all faiths and ages.
Joyful Again! began in the Chicago area. It now has several chapters around the country.
Credentials
- Listed in the Official Catholic Directory
- Member of the National Association of Family and conduct the workshops. Life Ministries
- Member of the National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved
- A 501(c)(3) Illinois not-for-profit corporation
A Message from our
Executive Director & Founder,
Father Medard Laz
Our Ministry
Helping widowed people move through bereavement toward spiritual and emotional wholeness
If you’ve been widowed, you know that it feels as though a part of your heart has been torn out!
If you haven’t been widowed, you can’t understand how long it takes for a widowed family member or friend of yours to “get back to normal” after the death of his or her partner.
Becoming widowed means every minute of your life has changed. It takes some time for you to adjust to and handle the stress that all of this constant change creates.
That is why new widows/widowers seem “not their usual selves.” Being widowed throws who you are out of balance. A short temper, short memory, short concentration are all are signs of always refocusing and adjusting to all the changes in your mind and spirit.
HEALING & SUPPORT
When you are ready to find joy again
Are your looking to embrace happiness? When the time does come that you make a conscious decision to find hope in your life and you want to try to find some joy in your life, the Joyful Again! widowed retreat is there to help.
This ecumenical program is for people of all faiths, all ages and all lengths of marriage. It can be healing, transitional and supportive - depending on where you are in your personal journey through the loss of your spouse.
For more than 30 years, this retreat weekend has gently guided
thousands of widowed people through their grief journeys into
the next part of living the lives God wants for them.
thousands of widowed people through their grief journeys into
the next part of living the lives God wants for them.
Our staff is compassionate and understanding. Each facilitator has also been widowed: They have walked the walk. They are peer ministers who have completed training to facilitate groups and conduct the workshops.
Joyful Again! is directed by a Board of Directors who have walked your path.
GRIEF HAS NO TIME FRAME
Complements other grief counseling programs
We are not a replacement for other counselors or grief groups. In fact, the Joyful Again! weekend complements programs that address grief immediately after a death.
More to the point, Joyful Again! is there months (and even years) afterward to help you resolve ongoing grief or get over where you may feel stuck. We also help you embrace all you’ve gone through as you now prepare to move on with your life.
