Curious as to theology of suffering

[MCGar]

I was just wondering, are there any non-Catholic faiths that share with us the teaching on Suffering and Offering it up? If you do, please share with us.

Thank You

This year I resolved to start all my posts with a prayer. Please join me if you like.

Dear Lord, you are great in my eyes. Please shine upon us all your love. Amen.

 

[KarenNC]

I was just wondering, are there any non-Catholic faiths that share with us the teaching on Suffering and Offering it up? If you do, please share with us.

Might be helpful if you give a brief overview of the Catholic teaching on this so that those of us who are not and have not been Catholic can know whether we share any of it or not.

 

[Ahimsa]

Offering it Up (or “Making a Good Intention”)

       		    So, how do Catholics 		    "offer up" their sufferings and sacrifices? In both formal and informal ways. 		    
      
      Formally, many Catholics make the [Morning 		    Offering ](http://www.fisheaters.com/morningoffering.html)to give to Our Lord that day's efforts, works, joys, sufferings, 		    intentions, etc. (the form may vary). At the Mass, we excercise our lay 		    priesthood by consciously, silently, privately offering ourselves up, along 		    with the Son, to the Father during the Offertory.
      
      Informally, we "offer it up" by simply asking God in our own words to use 		    a suffering as it occurs; we often do this for specific intentions (ex., 		    "Use this pain, Lord, for the salvation of my brother..."). We might follow 		    the example of the young St. Thérèse of Lisieux and make use 		    of [Sacrifice Beads](http://www.fisheaters.com/sacrificebeads.html), or the extraordinary 		    among us might make the [Heroic Act 		    of Charity](http://www.fisheaters.com/prayingforthedead.html#heroic) for the souls in Purgatory. 
      
      It's quite a discipline to react to suffering this way! In mental or physical 		    pain? Drop something on your toe? Putting up with a co-worker who is making 		    your life a living Hell? Enduring the constant ache of arthritis? Standing 		    in line at the grocery and hating every minute of it? Spill the milk? Accept 		    these things in peace, and ask God to use them for the good of the Church 		    or for a more specific intention close to your heart. This isn't easy to 		    do (and I in no way claim to be good at it), but it *does* make the 		    suffering more meaningful and less -- well, less insufferable!

 

[Ahimsa]

I was just wondering, are there any non-Catholic faiths that share with us the teaching on Suffering and Offering it up? If you do, please share with us.

Thank You

This year I resolved to start all my posts with a prayer. Please join me if you like.

Dear Lord, you are great in my eyes. Please shine upon us all your love. Amen.

Lord of All, let there be Peace, Peace, and more Peace. Amen.

The Catholic teaching on Suffering and Offering It Up has some parallels in the Hindu tradition. Hindus, like Catholics, practice vows (like a vow of celibacy, or fasting) that can create discomfort and suffering. That discomfort and suffering would then be for a specific spiritual purpose, whether a personal spiritual purpose or a purpose meant to help someone else.

Hindus also see un-wanted pain and suffering as having significance and meaning, too. A famous Hindu swami, Swami Sivananda, said this:
Swami Sivananda:

Knocks and blows of a severe type wean the mind of a man from sensual objects and turn it in the path of spirituality. Pain and poverty, evil and misery mould the character of a man more than pleasure and wealth. Poverty has got its own advantages. Censure and blows are better teachers than praise and honour. Pain is a better teacher than pleasure. Poverty is a better teacher than wealth.

If you can develop the power of endurance, if you can train yourself to rejoice in suffering, if you think that everything is done by God for one’s own betterment and uplift, if you welcome pain as a messenger of God to make you remember Him and to infuse in you more mercy and power of endurance, you will enjoy real bliss even amidst suffering. Pain will not be pain. Suffering will not be suffering. There will be no necessity for selfish worldly struggle for accumulating wealth. Greed and turmoil will vanish. You will rest in peace. You will rejoice within. This is not the philosophy of the Stoics. This is not the teaching of the pessimists. This is wonderful optimism that goads you on to realise the deep, abiding, eternal joy and unruffled peace of the Self within.