"When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him you will be - or so it feels - welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence."

 

By the end of A Grief Observed, Lewis has come to terms with his suffering, although his pain is obviously still raw.

"Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly," he wrote.

"Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand."