Offering it up after the fact

[TowardTruth]

Sometimes I hit some pretty dark places emotionally. In these dark emotional places, I am totally wrapped up in myself. I am so wrapped up in “self” that I can’t think of anything else.

Afterwards, when I recover and come out of those dark emotional places, I realize I could’ve offered up my suffering and unite it with Jesus’ suffering.

This sounds like a childish question and I know/think the answer is yes, but I have doubts.

Can we offer up our sufferings afterwards when we’re in a better place?

 

[GEddie]

Sometimes I hit some pretty dark places emotionally. In these dark emotional places, I am totally wrapped up in myself. I am so wrapped up in “self” that I can’t think of anything else.

Afterwards, when I recover and come out of those dark emotional places, I realize I could’ve offered up my suffering and unite it with Jesus’ suffering.

This sounds like a childish question and I know/think the answer is yes, but I have doubts.

Can we offer up our sufferings afterwards when we’re in a better place?

Ordinarily, I would say no, that there is no penitential value in sufferings that have passed.

I’ll follow this thread in case, however, I am wrong in that assessment.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

Depends what you mean by “offer it up.”

If you mean “let it go” as in do not dwell on it, then absolutely! If you mean to trust in the Lord and the Holy Spirit to take you where you need to go now, and/or accept the fact that it even happened at all, they yes, definitely!

(If you mean something more metaphysical or as relates to some particular tradition or something, then I can’t say anything without clarification, and maybe not even then.)

 

[Trishie]

May I just say:
God is not limited by time. Time is no barrier to God. If it were, no one before Christ died and rose could be saved.
Yet Abraham and Isaac and all good persons before Him are saved by Christ’s sacrifice.

 

[padrepio_2012]

This is actually tricky! I would like to say yes, one may offer something up even after the suffering has already passed because I have had this happen to me a few times where I forgot to offer up the suffering during the actual suffering! But then again, at what point can you no longer offer it up? What’s the time limit? Can I remember a suffering from weeks, months, even several years ago and offer that up now, long after the fact the time has passed? but alas, we are but human, and when we suffer it is hard not to think of only ourselves and to think of others. That’s why offering it up is so hard!

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

May I just say:
God is not limited by time. Time is no barrier to God. If it were, no one before Christ died and rose could be saved.
Yet Abraham and Isaac and all good persons before Him are saved by Christ’s sacrifice.