Do those who take their own lives automatically lose their salvation? How can we help those who have lost a loved one to suicide? Addressing the hard issue of suicide simply and pastorally, Fr. Chris Alar, MIC, draws from the teaching of the Church, the message of Divine Mercy, and his own experience of losing his grandmother to suicide in order to offer readers two key forms of hope. With co-author Jason Lewis, MIC, Fr. Chris reveals that there's hope for the salvation of those who've died by their own hand, and there's hope for the healing of those whom they've left behind. Remarkably, the spiritual principles of healing and redemption apply not only to a loss from suicide, but by any means of death.

Below are two 10-minute videos by Fr Chris, talking about his own personal experience with someone taking their own life in his family and offers advice and hope to those who have had a loved one or friend who has committed suicide.

In their new book After Suicide: There's hope for them and for you Alar and Lewis offer a fresh and compelling take on how to view prayer. Based on the fact that God is all-knowing (omniscient) and all-powerful (omnipotent), they explain how God's eternal being "outside of time" enables one's prayers to be effective to any point in time, including the past. This gives hope to all who have lost a loved one - that we can make a difference in the salvation of someone we love with our prayers and offerings, even years later, to assist them at the moment of their death. Supported by saints, theologians, and the liturgical prayers of the Church, these teachings, when applied, can result in amazing grace and the salvation of millions of souls who may have otherwise been lost.

Fr Chris - Introduction of After Suicide

Fr Chris Shares His Own Story

Praise for After Suicide - There's hope for them and for you

The night before Fr. Alar invited me to write an endorsement for this book, I was told about three people who had committed suicide in our local community just last week. This book couldn't be more timely, and it couldn't come from a better priest. Father Alar understands well the pain and anguish surrounding suicide,and he effectively applies the soothing hope and healing balm of Divine Mercy to that wound.
—Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC, author, 33 Days to Morning Glory and 33 Days to Merciful Love

I can think of absolutely no possible greater sorrow in this world than the suicide of someone we love. Ican think of no better answer to it than this book. This is a "must" book. Like no other, it fills a terribly deep need with a terribly deep clarity, charity, and wisdom borrowed from the saints, and without the slightest sentimentality, patronizing, or condescension but also without the slightest deviation from orthodoxy. Father Alar and Jason share with us the real teaching of the Church and her saints and theologians about suicides, which is startlingly and life-changingly different from what you probably thought it was.
—Dr. Peter Kreeft, author, Making Sense Out of Suffering