Need book on suffering

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I have a relative who is only 40 and she has been in a lot of pain for the past few years. She was first injured falling on ice and she broke some vertebrae. They had to delay surgery for many months due to complications from diabetes. She finally recovered enough to return to work and her volunteer position for a charity group. She was injured in a freak accident while volunteering and ended up with infections, gangrene and ultimately an above-the-knee amputation. Her boss tried to get rid of her during this time and her insurance is not covering her prosthetic. She is also a single mother with 2 dependent children to worry over.

I try to give encouragement to her but since she has been in the hospital more than not for the past year, it is really hard to lift her spirits. They had surgically implanted a TENs unit to manage her pain, especially from the phantom limb. However, her body has rejected the unit. There is only so much that drugs can do.

She is not Catholic, but she is at least nominally Christian. I would like suggestions on reading material or even audio tapes that I could send her that might help her deal with suffering. I know that her Baptist church didn’t talk about suffering having redemptive qualities because I used to be Baptist before converting. I keep praying for her and her children. I really hope that she draws closer to God because of this experience, but she is sounding more and more angry and despairing.

She likes novels, so if anyone can think of an appropriate book about a saint’s life that might help also. Of course all prayers would be appreciated too!
 
She may enjoy Arise from Darkness by Fr. Benedict Groeschel. He is quite ecumenical in his writing and uses several true life stories showing how God uses our sufferings.
 
Two suggestions. Jeff Cavins did a great thre tape series on his personal struggles to find meaning in suffering. I do not know the title, but perhaps someone else is familiar with it.

From a protestant view point, C. Swindoll has a book “For Those WHho Hurt”. It’s been a while, but I remember it was very comforting, even if not as deep as some of the Catholic materials.

One more: there is a series called “Amazing Grace for ________” There are several titles. They consist of testimonials from different people who have endured tremendous suffering and how they made it through. A great testimony to the Catholic faith.
 
I like Making Sense out of Suffering by Peter Kreeft. He draws on the Philosophers, the Artists and the Prophets for answers.
 
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pnewton:
One more: there is a series called “Amazing Grace for ________” There are several titles. They consist of testimonials from different people who have endured tremendous suffering and how they made it through. A great testimony to the Catholic faith.
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Amazing Grace Series
 
A novel that deals with this subject is A Cry of Stone by Michael O’Brien. It is actually about poverty of spirit but the main character in this book experiences a lot of loss in her life and finds God in it. She also has a physical handicap in that she has a deformed back. It is an excellent book, as are all of the books by Michael O’Brien.
God Bless!
 
The first person who comes to mind here is Fr. John Corapi, a phenomenally inspiring speaker and writer. He actually wrote his (I believe) doctoral thesis on “John Paul II and the Mystery of Suffering.” I have this on DVD, and it’s excellent, though quite pricey, as it’s about 4 DVD’s or more.

He has MANY tapes and CDs about suffering, though, and the best way is to go to www.fathercorapi.com and search “suffering.” The titles are:

John Paul II and the Mystery of Suffering
Joy of the Cross
The Cross and the Christian
If God is Good, Why Evil, Pain, & Suffering?

If you haven’t heard him… you’ve got to! :love:
 
Story of a Soul by St. Therese really changed my prespective on suffering. I found it to be very inspirational.
 
Thank you to everyone who has posted suggestions. I will keep checking back and I will look up the items already suggested. I think that Fr. Corapi’s audio cds might be a good start while she is still in the hospital and not able to concentrate on reading very well.
 
SAINT JOHN VIANNEY : Catechism on Suffering

WHETHER WE will or not, we must suffer. There are some who suffer like the good thief, and others like the bad thief. They both suffered equally. But one knew how to make his sufferings meritorious, he accepted them in the spirit of reparation, and turning towards Jesus crucified, he received from His mouth these beautiful words: "This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise. " The other, on the contrary, cried out, uttered imprecations and blasphemies, and expired in the most frightful despair. There are two ways of suffering - to suffer with love, and to suffer without love. The saints suffered everything with joy, patience, and perseverance, because they loved. As for us, we suffer with anger, vexation, and weariness, because we do not love. If we loved God, we should love crosses, we should wish for them, we should take pleasure in them. . . . We should be happy to be able to suffer for the love of Him who lovingly suffered for us. Of what do we complain? Alas! the poor infidels, who have not the happiness of knowing God and His infinite loveliness, have the same crosses that we have; but they have not the same consolations. You say it is hard? No, it is easy, it is consoling, it is sweet; it is happiness. Only we must love while we suffer, and suffer while we love.

On the Way of the Cross, you see, my children, only the first step is painful. Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses. . . . We have not the courage to carry our cross, and we are very much mistaken; for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight - we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses and make use of them to take us to Heaven? But, on the contrary, most men turn their backs upon crosses, and fly before them. The more they run, the more the cross pursues them, the more it strikes and crushes them with burdens. . . . If you were wise, you would go to meet it like St. Andrew, who said, when he saw the cross prepared for him and raised up into the air, "Hail O good cross! O admirable cross! O desirable cross! receive me into thine arms, withdraw me from among men, and restore me to my Master, who redeemed me through thee. "
 
Listen attentively to this, my children: He who goes to meet the cross, goes in the opposite direction to crosses; he meets them, perhaps, but he is pleased to meet them; he loves them; he carries them courageously. They unite him to Our Lord; they purify him; they detach him from this world; they remove all obstacles from his heart; they help him to pass through life, as a bridge helps us to pass over water. . . . Look at the saints; when they were not persecuted. they persecuted themselves. A good religious complained one day to Our Lord that he was persecuted. He said, “O Lord, what have I done to be treated thus?” Our Lord answered him, “And I, what had I done when I was led to Calvary?” Then the religious understood; he wept, he asked pardon, and dared not complain any more. Worldly people are miserable when they have crosses, and good Christians are miserable when they have none. The Christian lives in the midst of crosses, as the fish lives in the sea.

Look at St. Catherine; she has two crowns, that of purity and that of martyrdom: how happy she is, that dear little saint, to have chosen to suffer rather than to consent to sin! There was once a religious who loved suffering so much that he had fastened the rope from a well round his body; this cord had rubbed off the skin, and had by degrees buried itself in the flesh, out of which worms came. His brethren asked that he should be sent out of the community. He went away happy and pleased, to hide himself in a rocky cavern. But the same night the Superior heard Our Lord saying to him: "Thou hast lost the treasure of thy house. " Then they went to fetch back this good saint, and they wanted to see from whence these worms came. The Superior had the cord taken off, which was done by turning back the flesh. At last he got well.

Very near this, in a neighbouring parish, there was a little boy in bed, covered with sores, very ill, and very miserable; I said to him, “My poor little child, you are suffering very much!” He answered me, "No, sir; today I do not feel the pain I had yesterday, and tomorrow I shall not suffer from the pain I have now:’ “You would like to get well?” "No; I was naughty before I was ill, and I might be so again. I am very well as I am. " We do not understand that, because we are too earthly. Children in whom the Holy Ghost dwells put us to shame.

If the good God sends us crosses, we resist, we complain, we murmur; we are so averse to whatever contradicts us, that we want to be always in a box of cotton: but we ought to be put into a box of thorns. It is by the Cross that we go to Heaven. Illnesses, temptations, troubles, are so many crosses which take us to Heaven. All this will soon be over. . . . Look at the saints, who have arrived there before us. . . . The good God does not require of us the martyrdom of the body; He requires only the martyrdom of the heart, and of the will. . . . Our Lord is our model; let us take up our cross, and follow Him. Let us do like the soldiers of Napoleon. They had to cross a bridge under the fire of grapeshot; no one dared to pass it. Napoleon took the colours, marched over first, and they all followed. Let us do the same; let us follow Our Lord, who has gone before us.

A soldier was telling me one day that during a battle he had marched for half an hour over dead bodies; there was hardly space to tread upon; the ground was all dyed with blood. Thus on the road of life we must walk over crosses and troubles to reach our true country. The cross is the ladder to Heaven. . . . How consoling it is to suffer under the eyes of God, and to be able to say in the evening, at our examination of conscience: “Come, my soul! thou hast had today two or three hours of resemblance to Jesus Christ. Thou hast been scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified with Him!” Oh what a treasure for the hour of death! How sweet it is to die, when we have lived on the cross! We ought to run after crosses as the miser runs after money. . . . Nothing but crosses will reassure us at the Day of Judgment. When that day shall come, we shall be happy in our misfortunes, proud of our humiliations, and rich in our sacrifices!
 
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