Suffering

I’m writing this today as I sit with my leg propped up and an ice brick on it, attempting to reduce the swelling of some really nasty insect bites. They can cause unbelievable pain and I find it hard to do anything at the moment which is very frustrating.

This and reading about St Catherine of Siena made me think about the idea of suffering. She is one amongst many saints who didn’t have an easy life. Born in a family of 25 children (she was 24th), when she decided she didn’t want to get married, her family treated her like a servant. Despite this, she went about helping the poor and sick and became a Doctor of the Church. Her parents didn’t seem to be very kind and so I wonder how it was that she developed the life she had; could it be the suffering at an early age that directed her thoughts and emotions towards God instead of worldly things?

This isn’t the case with every saint, but many did have very difficult, poor childhoods and yet somehow managed to find that connection with God that was so strong their whole lives were spent in living out that love for God.

When we live in wealthy countries and have had comfortable, loving upbringings, perhaps it is more difficult to put worldly desires and pleasures away and focus on living a good christian life. Some saints who did have luxurious lives managed to break free of this and adopt a more austere way of living, but it can’t have been easy.

Who knows why we suffer especially when we ask God to take pain and illness away, but perhaps we are being led to a deeper faith and trust in God for comfort and support and it can help us to empathise with others who suffer.

God bless you and may he alleviate any suffering you are going through and may youeel his divine love and presence in your life,

2 Corinthians 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.