First off, I'd like to quibble with the publisher or the marketing person or whoever picked the subtitle for this book. The emphasis is wrong. The subtitle should be "Celebrating Death and Life" and not what the book shows.

A fine book about the response of the church to the tragic death of an obviously extraordinary young woman, BUT the author has given us more than a "You are there" guide. Vogel offers insights into the way of community and how community forms. She offers helpful ways for groups to celebrate marker events within the community. Her book should help most of us get beyond the hype of the funeral industry to look at the normal aspects of death and of our grief and of our GRATITUDE.

This book offers a new perspective on the idea of sacraments by looking at life lived sacramentally. The Vogels move beyond church traditional thinking about sacraments (Eucharist, Baptism, and others) to think about friendships, hospitality, sharing gifts, being present to others as sacraments. They invite readers to think about the whole of life as sacred and they see aspects of the sacred in all facets of life.