Pastors will receive solid theological and practical assistance with the important task of creating and presenting the funeral homily. Because time is usually limited for meditation creation, they will find invaluable help time and again from this volume. The first part of the book addresses the actual art of crafting a funeral homily with a step-by-step description or the process. The second part consists of actual sermons written using the process. Besides illustrating the methods, Schmitz, provides starting points for constructing sermons based on the liturgical year. Also included are canticle and music suggestions that highlight each homily's theme and give insights into planning the entire funeral service. In this wonderful book Schmitz reclaims the funeral sermon as an act of theological integrity through which our dying and our lives are put in the context of Christ's life, death and resurrection. Anyone who has to preach funeral sermons will benefit from this book... Stanley Hauerwas Duke University I am simply delighted at what Schmitz has succeeded in doing with The Life Of Christ And The Death Of A Loved One... I doubt that anyone has tried what she has produced. The idea itself is wonderfully creative -- I mean the way she combines the individual, the theological, the pastoral, and the evangelistic. This is new, fresh, striking, immensely practical. The most personal compliment I can pay her for what she has done is to say that she has set me on a fresh track. Walter J. Burghardt, S.J. Author First, your manuscript should be welcomed by pastors. There is such a shortage of good material about funerals. I find what you have sent to me to be rather strong theologically, liturgically, and pastorally. It properly keeps Christ and the gospel central to the service of the funeral while attending to the grief of the bereaved. So much of the material for funerals centers so much on the deceased that Christ and scripture get off to one side. You have remedied that quite well. Fred B. Craddock Author Barbara G. Schmitz is an Episcopal priest and Rector of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Hazel Park, Michigan. She has also served parishes in New York and Nebraska. Along with her M.Div., she holds degrees from Houghton College and Cornell University.