Home > Spiritual Reading > The Four Last Things

Online Shop

The Four Last Things

Practical Guide to the Spiritual Care of the Dying Person

Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales

Precise and helpful advice for those involved with the care of dying people

Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement, defined "total pain" as being emotional, social and spiritual distress, which accentuates physical pain. Without addressing each of these factors, she argued, we fail to control pain and distress. When a patient is dying, this becomes more important than ever, yet the pressures of modern living mean that the spiritual needs of patients are all too often ignored.
This guide to spiritual care is so valuable because it enables us all to recognise psychosocial and spiritual distress in the dying. It is applicable to dying people of any faith or none; as the authors observe, "we share a common humanity if not always a common faith".

Reviews

"This guide should be read by all who are involved with dying people. Dying is a part of life that will come to us all sooner or later. We must try to see it through the eyes of those who are there now. " - Professor the Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Professor of Palliative Medicine, Velindre Hospital, Cardiff