God is faithful & God can be trusted! Do you believe that? St. Teresa of Jesus prayed: “Let nothing trouble you/
Let nothing frighten you
Everything passes/
God never changes
Patience/ Obtains all
Whoever has God/
Wants for nothing
God alone is enough.”
The General Introduction of Order of Christian Funerals, [# 8] instructs us to pray, “If one member suffers in the body of Christ which is the Church, all the members suffer with that member.” [1 Cor. 12:26]
For this reason, those who are baptized into Christ and nourished at the same table of the Lord are responsible for one another. When Christians are sick, their brothers and sisters share a ministry of mutually charity and “do all that they can to help the sick return to health by showing love for the sick, and by celebrating the sacraments with them.”
The basic questions that we have can be summed up in two. 1. Why do people suffer, and 2. Why do we pray? These may appear to be simple questions on the surface, but they are really quite profound. I think the first thing to consider is why pray? Do you pray to get what you want? Do you pray to know what God wants? Do you pray to build & strengthen your relationship with God? I suggest the primary purpose of praying to is build and strengthen your relationship with God, so you can discover His will for your life and follow it.
The question about suffering is at its essence a mystery, we can know something about suffering, but not the entire picture. A Bishop in Ireland – asked a question at Confirmation about the Trinity, a confirmand answered that is - 3 in 1, 1 in 3. The Bishop responded, “I don’t understand”, and the boy said, “You not supposed to, it’s a mystery!”
The best explanation I have found for why we suffer is a story about a Rabbi teaching his students about 400 years before Christ. He was teaching 4 or 5 of his students just outside their village. As they looked down on their village, they saw foreign troops invading the village. They heard the screaming; the yelling and saw the fires. Finally, the rabbi looked up to heaven and screamed, “If only I were God!” One of his students asked him, “What would you do differently if you were God.” The rabbi answered, “I would do nothing differently, but I would understand!”
We don’t understand why there is pain and suffering in the world, but Jesus taught us what to do with our pain and suffering. Offer it to God, the Father and ask Him to bless it & have good come from it.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
St. Andre Bessette, intercede for us.
St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.
“Tune my spirit to the music of heaven.” [St. Brendan the Navigator]
May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.
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