How to deal with suffering

[Rosarydevotion]

Hello, I’m wondering if anyone could offer some suggestions on how to deal with intense suffering. I’ve heard of the idea of offering it up to God but I’m not sure what this means per say. What does this mean to offer it up to God? And how does this benefit the Lord if I’m suffering? Just some thoughts on these concepts would be helpful.

I want to be able to accept the suffering without the need to find a way out of it. Does anyone have any strategies?

Thanks

 

[JM3]

archive.org/details/abandonmenttodiv00causuoft

 

[captainrick]

Hello, I’m wondering if anyone could offer some suggestions on how to deal with intense suffering. I’ve heard of the idea of offering it up to God but I’m not sure what this means per say. What does this mean to offer it up to God? And how does this benefit the Lord if I’m suffering? Just some thoughts on these concepts would be helpful.

I want to be able to accept the suffering without the need to find a way out of it. Does anyone have any strategies?

Thanks

Good question! I have wondered about this for years. I say “Okay Lord, I’m offerimg this up to you!” And… Then what???

 

[po18guy]

1. We are members of the Body of Christ. Parts of His mystical Body. This is huge.
2. He suffered for the redemption of all mankind, but specifically for those who would follow Him.
3. Yet, being parts of His Body also means that we will suffer, as He suffered.
4. Our personal suffering can be combined with His redemptive suffering (see #1).
5. If His suffering had redemptive power, so also does ours, since we are part of His Body.
6. You can ask God to accept it for redemptive value, either for yourself, or more commonly, for others - especially for those suffering in purgatory.

Fr. John Hardon spoke of the great mystics who enjoyed suffering because of their love of God. Why enjoy suffering? Isn’t that crazy? Well, it reflects just how crazy our God is for us - that He chose to suffer so that we might spend all eternity with Him. Our God bears scars because of His love of us. Do we truly expect to spend eternity with a God who suffered if we do not share in that suffering - especially being parts of His Body, and united with Him? We know that His suffering had purpose - and so does ours, if we allow it to.

Indeed, there are those who are known as “victim souls.” They willingly suffer for the sake of others - and this is a definition of love, is it not? They choose to suffer in imitation of the Christ Who chose to suffer for them. Bishop Sheen lamented the amount of wasted suffering in our world, when it could have done so much good.

Speak to your Priest about this, as this is but one wonderful blessing of our Catholic faith - knowing what to do with suffering. Nearly all non-Catholics struggle terribly with the issue of suffering, but we know its value.

Making Sense out of Suffering by Peter Kreeft might also help you.

 

[josh987654321]

Hello, I’m wondering if anyone could offer some suggestions on how to deal with intense suffering. I’ve heard of the idea of offering it up to God but I’m not sure what this means per say. What does this mean to offer it up to God? And how does this benefit the Lord if I’m suffering? Just some thoughts on these concepts would be helpful.

I want to be able to accept the suffering without the need to find a way out of it. Does anyone have any strategies?

Thanks

I would like to share with you the link to a short book on Jesus’ passion that I will mostly quote out of below which has brought me much comfort.

The Passion - loveandmercy.org/Eng-TP-Reg.pdf

This booklet contains the Roman Catholic IMPRIMATUR, which assures the reader that nothing therein is contrary to Catholic Faith, Morals or Teaching. (For more information regarding this short booklet and others please read this - youshallbelieve.com/A-plea-to-humanity.pdf)

In regards to ‘Offering it up to God’ I never really appreciated that until after reading this booklet, instead I believe it should be ‘Uniting it with the Cross of Christ.’

“If you turn devoutly to the wounds and precious stigmata of Christ, you will find great comfort in suffering, you will mind but little the scorn of men, and you will easily bear their slanderous talk.” - Extract from the book ‘Imitation of Christ’ by Thomas A Kempis
Jesus to Catalina:

The Passion - loveandmercy.org/Eng-TP-Reg.pdf

**"Contemplate My wounds and see if there is anyone who has suffered as much as I, to show their love…

"Contemplate for a moment these bloodstained hands and feet… This naked body, covered with wounds, with urine, and blood. Dirty… This head punctured by sharp thorns, soaked in sweat, full of dust, and covered in Blood…

"Contemplate your Jesus, hanging on the Cross, without being able to make the slightest movement… naked, without fame, without honor, without liberty…

"Contemplate Me in the image of the Christ who cries and bleeds. There and in this way the world has Me**

http://s15.postimg.org/s9fu5lkbv/Crucifixion.jpg
Jesus to Catalina:

The Passion - loveandmercy.org/Eng-TP-Reg.pdf

**Look at Me, My beloved ones. Letting Myself be led with the meekness of a lamb to the terrible torture of the scourging. On My Body, already covered with blows and overwhelmed with fatigue, the executioners cruelly discharge terrible lashes with braided rope, with rods. They punish Me so violently that there was no part of Me which was not prey to the most terrible pain… The blows and the kicks caused Me countless wounds… The rods tore away pieces of My skin and flesh. Blood flowed from all My limbs. Time after time I fell because of the pain caused by the blows to My manliness. My Body was in such a state that I resembled a monster more than a man. The features of My face had lost their shape; it was all swollen.

1. The thought of so many souls, who would later be inspired to follow My footsteps, consumed Me with Love. **

Jesus to Catalina:

The Passion - loveandmercy.org/Eng-TP-Reg.pdf

**5) The fatigue that I feel is so great and the Cross so heavy that halfway along the path, I fall from weakness. See how those inhuman men lift Me up in the most brutal manner. One grabs My arm, another pulls My clothes that are stuck to My wounds, tearing them open again… This one grabs Me by the neck, another by the hair; others discharge dreadful blows to My whole Body, with their fists, and even with their feet. The Cross falls upon Me and with its weight causes new wounds. My face is scraped by the stones in the road and the blood which runs down My face sticks to My eyes that are almost closed because of the blows they have received. The dust and the mud mingle with the blood and I am turned into the most repugnant of objects.

1. My Father sends Angels to help support Me so that My Body does not lose consciousness when it falls, so that the battle may not be won before its time and all My souls are lost.
2. I walk over the stones that destroy My feet. I stumble and fall time and time again. I look at both sides of the road, searching for the slightest look of love, of surrender, of union with My pain, but… I do not see anyone.
3. My children, you who follow in My footsteps, do not let go of your cross no matter how heavy it seems to you. Do it for Me because by carrying your cross, you will help Me carry Mine, and on the difficult path, you will find My Mother and the holy souls who will give you encouragement and comfort. **

Thus, from the Cross He could see all His faithful imitators, who carried their crosses out of love for God, out of the vision of what He had suffered for us, and this inspired Him, and gave Him more strength to carry His cross. Thus when we carry our crosses with love, out of the Love of God, we help Him in carrying His Cross, we share in His redemptive sacrafice and in His glory.

That’s why He say’s -
Jesus to Catalina:

The Passion - loveandmercy.org/Eng-TP-Reg.pdf

8) My children, you who follow in My footsteps, do not let go of your cross no matter how heavy it seems to you. Do it for Me because by carrying your cross, you will help Me carry Mine, and on the difficult path, you will find My Mother and the holy souls who will give you encouragement and comfort.

And -
Jesus to Catalina:

The Passion - loveandmercy.org/Eng-TP-Reg.pdf

**2) The thought of so many souls, who would later be inspired to follow My footsteps, consumed Me with Love. **

Please continue to next post -

 

[josh987654321]

Continued from above post -
Jesus to Catalina:

The Passion - loveandmercy.org/Eng-TP-Reg.pdf

**17) My children, there are no glorious crosses on earth; they are all wrapped in mystery, in darkness, in exasperation: in mystery, because you do not understand it; in darkness, because they blind the mind; and in exasperation, because they strike blows in precisely those places where one does not wish to be struck.

1. Do not complain; do not delay. I tell you that not only did I carry the wooden cross that led Me to Glory, but, above all, that invisible but permanent Cross that was formed by the crosses of your sins. Yes, and of your sufferings. Everything that you suffer was the object of My sorrows, for I not only suffered to give you Redemption, but also for what you should suffer now. Look at the love that unites Me to you; in it have the confirmation of My Holy Will and unite yourselves to Me by observing how I behaved in the midst of unlimited bitterness.
2. I have taken as a symbol a piece of wood, a cross. I have carried it with great love, for the good of all. I have suffered real affliction so that all could rejoice in Me. But today, how many believe in the One who truly did love you and does love you? Contemplate Me in the image of the Christ that weeps and bleeds. There and in this way the world has Me.**

Jesus to Catalina:

I Have Given My Life for You - loveandmercy.org/Eng-IHG-Reg.pdf

3) Thus, you are plunged into a permanent struggle between good and evil. The good completely focused on My sufferings and the evil focused on your sufferings

Jesus to Catalina:

The Passion - loveandmercy.org/Eng-TP-Reg.pdf

**6) On the other hand, there are souls, and not few, who, moved by their desire for salvation but above all, by the love inspired in them by the vision of what I have suffered for them, decide to follow Me on the path to Calvary. They embrace the perfect life and give themselves to My service, not to help Me carry just a part of the Cross but all of it. Their only desire is to give Me rest and to console Me. For that purpose, they volunteer for everything that My Will asks of them, searching for how they can please Me. They do not think about the merits or the reward that awaits them, or the tiredness or the suffering that will result for them. The only thing that they have in mind is the love that they can show Me, and the comfort they give Me…

1. If My Cross is presented as an illness, if it is hidden under a job contrary to their inclinations and of little agreement with their abilities, if it comes accompanied by the thoughtlessness of people surround them, they accept it with total submission.
2. Oh! These are the souls that truly carry My Cross; they adore it. They make use of it for obtaining My Glory with no interest or payment other than My love. They are the ones that consider Me and glorify Me.
3. If you do not see the result of your sufferings, of your self-denial, or if you see it later, be certain that they have not been in vain and fruitless but, on the contrary, the fruit will be abundant.
4. The soul who truly loves, does not keep count of how much it has suffered or labored, nor does it expect this or that reward, but it seeks only that which it believes glorifies its God… For Him it spares neither labors nor weariness. It does not become agitated or restless, far from it, for it does not lose its peace if it finds itself thwarted or humiliated, because the only motive for its actions is love, and love abandons the consequences and the results. Therein lies the purpose of souls who do not seek rewards. The only thing that they hope for is My Glory, My comfort, My rest, and, for that reason they have taken My Cross and all the weight that My Will desires to place upon them.
5. My children, call Me by My name, for Jesus means everything. I will wash your feet, those feet that have trodden a slippery path and are now wounded by the blows against the rocks. I will wipe away your tears, cure you, kiss you, and you will remain healthy and know no other path but the one that leads you to Me.
6. We are now at Calvary! The mob is excited because the dreadful moment is near… Exhausted by fatigue, I can hardly walk. My feet bleed because of the stones on the way… Three times I have fallen along the way: once to give sinners used to sinning the strength to convert; another to give encouragement to souls who fall because of being frail and to souls who are blinded by sadness and restlessness, encouraging them to rise and embark with courage upon the path of virtue; and the third time, to help souls depart from sin at the hour of their death.**

Jesus to Catalina:

The Great Crusade of Salvation - loveandmercy.org/Eng-CS-Reg.pdf

4) When the cross of suffering weighs heavy on you, remember that you are but pilgrims on this earth. Beyond the tomb, lies a wonderfully, more beautiful world, which God has prepared for His faithful children.

I would also like to share with you a previous post on ‘Pain and Suffering’ that I believe will also help you greatly.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

And one of the Love and Mercy of God

Part 1

I hope all this has helped you.

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[Rosarydevotion]

Thanks so much for the responses. I’m looking forward to reading the recommended books. I feel more comfort in what I’m going through just knowing that my suffering can serve a great purpose. Knowing this makes all of it feel more endurable.