Know any good apologetic book on how to use your pain to save souls?

[Harry123]

I’m looking for a few things:

• Apologetic arguments where scripture says you can use your pain to save other peoples souls.
• How to explain this to an atheist who doesn’t believe in scripture anyway.
• How to offer up your pain in practise
• And then how to actually pray to achieve this.

 

[Harry123]

Couldn’t find any books on amazon.

Also curious how simply praying can save souls. How can my prayer (such as the rosary) save someone elses soul. My understanding is this is what nuns do all day in monasteries. They pray to save souls.

 

[reggieM]

It’s not really a topic for apologetics as such. It’s a mystical reality that is explained in many Catholic books. The offering of one’s pain has tremendous power in conversions. Yes, any Carmelite nun knows this. It’s a life of offering and sacrifice - for the salvation of souls. Mortification and reparation. Our Lady of Fatima’s message is all about that. So is Our Lady’s messages to St. Bernadette.
But there are many others - too many.
Life of St. Pio (Padre Pio).
Little Flowers of St. Francis Assisi
Lives of the Desert Fathers
Reparation - Raoul Plus
Progress in Divine Union - Raoul Plus
Life of Blessed Alexandrina de Costa
Story of a Soul - St. Thérèse LIsieux
Life of St. Lydwinne
The Revelations of the Sacred Heart

Any book on Catholic mystical theology will explain this.
Look for lives of stigmatics, and victim souls (Marthe Robin, Berthe Petit.
A very good story on this is the life of Elisabeth Leseur.

This is an essential part of Catholic belief - but it’s an area that most people don’t know about also.

So, good question - and I hope you will keep searching out answers. There is a lot of amazing information to find on this topic!

 

[reggieM]

Couldn’t find any books on amazon.

Also curious how simply praying can save souls. How can my prayer (such as the rosary) save someone elses soul. My understanding is this is what nuns do all day in monasteries. They pray to save souls.

In prayer, we are praising God, thanking Him and also - asking for things, petitions to Him.
God wants us to pray for each other, and especially for people who have no faith or are lost in sin. They need to be rescued.
Why doesn’t God just save them Himself?
Well, the way God created the world - we all are responsible for each other. We have a task to fulfill and God wants us to do it.
Part of that task is praying and asking God to give His grace to other people.

This is all based on the mystery of “merit”. That is kind of like a bank of graces. Good graces (for conversion) are built up by good acts, prayer, sacrifice, painful offerings - many things. Humanity builds up those merits – and God can apply them to people.
Sin steals away from that bank. If nobody prays and if more and more people sin, the “amount of merit” that God can use is reduced.
That’s why contemplative nuns, for example, are so necessary. They pray day and night - filling up the “bank” of grace that people can use freely for their salvation.

 

[reggieM]

Col 1:24 is a mysterious passage that St. Paul gives which teaches this doctrine.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church;

He says his pain, fills up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.
What it means is, that each person needs certain graces for salvation – certain gifts, protections, having the right person at the right time, many things like that.
Christ’s sufferings are infinite in taking away Original Sin and making heaven available.
But He did not give every possible grace needed for each person’s path in life with the Cross alone. He relies on his disciples (us) to “fill up” the graces that are still needed to save souls.

 

[reggieM]

I’m looking for a few things:

*]Apologetic arguments where scripture says you can use your pain to save other peoples souls.

Col 1:24 as in the previous post - that is a good start.

*]How to explain this to an atheist who doesn’t believe in scripture anyway.

It’s a question of Justice. An atheist might understand that.
Sin takes away good from the world. Every sin an atheist commits, even those little jabs in internet discussions - those are an injustice to others and to the world.
Who is going to pay back that injustice? How do you pay back the pain caused by sin?
Well, the way it works is - the pain caused by sin, can be repaid back by the pain of reparation or penance.
Some people sacrifice themselves to pay back sins they didn’t even commit. This is a high degree of charity. Atheists generally don’t pay back their sins - so the injustice in the world increases. If nobody pays back any pain to make reparation - after a while, the balance gets skewed and only God can bring back the balance. This is what happens when we see various disasters of various kinds. If more people had made reparation for sin, there woudln’t be those disasters.
That’s why, as the world turns farther from God - there will be more tragedies, crises and disasters of all kinds - because nobody is paying back what they owe due to an increase in sin (think global warming, terrorism).
Reparation is what saves us from much evil.

*]How to offer up your pain in practise

A classic thing we were taught in the old days - a simple phrase: “Offer it up!”
We even had our football coach yelling that to us (Catholc school). A guy would be all upset for dropping the ball or something like that – the coach would yell “Offer it up!”-- he meant, take that suffering and offer it to God.
How to do it?
it’s really just as simple as a prayer “Dear Lord, I offer you this pain I’m suffering right now, in reparation for my sins and for the salvation of souls most in need”.
That is probably the most powerful prayer you can offer.

*]And then how to actually pray to achieve this.

The prayer “Thy will, not mine, be done” is what we’re saying.
No matter what happens in our day - once we start feeling pain (frustration, upset, irritation, bumps and bruises, fears, humiliations … whatever - we make that prayer “Dear Lord, I offer you this pain … please accept it, along with the Offering of Jesus on the Cross in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass”.

The story of Fatima has a lot on this. God is very pleased with that offering and it is the most powerful way to obtain great graces for people and ourselves and the world.

 

[Cathoholic]

Making Sense Out of Suffering
By Dr. Peter Kreeft

Hope this helps.

God bless.

Cathoholic

 

[Harry123]

Making Sense Out of Suffering
By Dr. Peter Kreeft

Hope this helps.

God bless.

Cathoholic

I don’t have a problem with making sense out of suffering, what I want is clarity on how it can be used to save souls.