Moments of Clarity

So... after my incredibly frustrating back thing yesterday and getting nothing else really accomplished, I went to Mass at 4.30. Every step hurts and I'm walking like I'm 90, awesome. I had to run to Joann fabrics for some veil making supplies for this coming week and as I gingerly dragged myself out of the car I had one of those moments of clarity. This is my opportunity to really pray for someone.

A couple years ago I read Pope John Paul II's letter Salvifici Doloris on The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering. Soooooo powerful. One of the main things that stuck with me was that I don’t want to squander my own suffering - ever. It is too valuable. Suffering is such a powerful gift, and a powerful tool for building up the Kingdom and those suffering… And yet, I have to admit, I’m not so good at this whole suffering thing and I usually forget to offer it or do anything except whine about it.

Back to my current situation, there I was in the parking lot of Joann’s having a moment of clarity. I suddenly knew that this was an opportunity for me to really pray for someone I love dearly. I’ve got a prayer list a mile long, but this was so clearly an opportunity to pray for this specific person. Woah.

So… I am attempting to offer up my frustration over a derailed productive weekend and the pain for someone who needs it. And to close, a few words from Blessed John Paul II:

“This is the meaning of suffering, which is truly supernatural and at the same time human. It is supernatural because it is rooted in the divine mystery of the Redemption of the world, and it is likewise deeply human, because in it the person discovers himself, his own humanity, his own dignity, his own mission…

Together with Mary, Mother of Christ, who stood beneath the Cross(103),we pause beside all the crosses of contemporary man. We invoke all the Saints, who down the centuries in a special way shared in the suffering of Christ. We ask them to support us. And we ask all you who suffer to support us. We ask precisely you who are weak to become a source of strength for the Church and humanity. In the terrible battle between the forces of good and evil, revealed to our eyes by our modern world, may your suffering in union with the Cross of Christ be victorious!”