Posts with the tag “suffering”

Mary Magdalene on Christ’s Tomb (circa 1900) by Giuseppe CaliExhibited by the Malta Art Association. In this year’s Lenten Meditations, we have contemplated together many aspects of suffering:  what it is and isn’t, what we can do with it, what it calls out in us.  We are beginning to get a sense that, when we have suffered something profound, it inevitably changes us.  Suffering causes us to bec...  Read More

We have explored previously in the Lenten Meditations the idea that suffering, in itself, is not inherently good. And yet, remarkably, when a thing is suffered well, it often inspires goodness; not only in ourselves, but in those who bear witness to our suffering. In his book The Problem of Pain author C.S. Lewis writes...  Read More

Everyone knows by experience the frustration of being inconvenienced. An appointment is canceled at the last minute, the store doesn’t have the item we need, a home renovation takes longer than expected. Inconvenience is a part of life, and admittedly, not a fun one. We do not like intrusions into the smooth efficiency of our routine...  Read More

In everyday conversation we often tend to use the words “pain” and “suffering” interchangeably. We may say, “My arthritis is causing me pain”, but just as likely we might also say, “I’ve been really suffering with my arthritis lately”. And we would mean much the same thing. In both instances, when we are talking about pain and suffering, we are attempting to express the inward reality that something is hurting us...  Read More

A fundamental precept of the creed of our Christian faith is the belief that Jesus Christ suffered for our sake. And Lent is the time when we offer our disciplined attention, with particular clarity and purpose, to this suffering, and what was accomplished by it. And yet, though suffering is so central to our theology, it seems to me that sometimes we don’t quite know exactly what we mean when we talk about it...  Read More

July 27th, 2023 was an important anniversary for me, but unfortunately, not the fun kind. It marked not a birthday, or a wedding day, but the date of a car accident that exactly ten years before had changed my relationship with my body, forever. I have written elsewhere about the crushing nerve injury I suffer...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: Blessings to you during this Holy Week. I continue to pray, not only for myself but for everyone, that we may comprehend how we, in our stubborn desire to return to normal, continue to reject the profound disruption of our “normal” way of being with one another as Americans, and as human beings. I recall how the newly called People of God, set free from their enslavement in Egypt, soon wanted to go back to Egypt and slavery rather than to learn how, in the Wilderness with God, to be free, “to become a people all His own.” ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus, It is Mary Edmonds who writes to you today. It has been a whole year since our last correspondence. Our dear friend Fr. Ganz has kept me up to date as to how life is treating you. It seems as if we have both, and all, seen and experienced many joys as well as sorrows in these past 12 months. As a fellow pilgrim, you understand...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: It is Tara Ludwig who writes to you today, Peregrinus, she of the Faber Institute, long-standing student and friend of Fr. Richard Ganz, a man you yourself know and love well. Perhaps you are wondering why it is not he who writes to you now, as is his monthly habit in your long and profound correspondence ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: You gave to all of us in your talk this morning a substantial grace. Thank you. I find myself needing to take the time today, and perhaps for several days, to let have access to me all that you spoke. I have learned that all of us need to learn better that a significant grace may take a long time fully to absorb, and correctly to understand. What is ...  Read More

Dear Peregrina: I might as well admit that I feel awe whenever I have the chance to go visit Crater Lake, which I did recently, when I was driving on June 17th, making my way with Lexie (the car) towards Los Altos, CA, and to the Jesuit Retreat Center there, for the sake of directing the Long Retreat. One assumes that the awe induced there at Crater Lake in all but those deadest of soul has ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: You gave to all of us in your talk this morning a substantial grace. Thank you. I find myself needing to take the time today, and perhaps for several days, to let have access to me all that you spoke. I have learned that all of us need to learn better that a significant grace may take a long time fully to absorb, and correctly to understand.What is it about divine grace that puzzles...  Read More