The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Offer It Up: Finding Meaning in Suffering

Episode Date: July 21, 2017

Have you ever considered offering up your "less-than-ideal" days to your Heavenly Father? Jeff wants you to know that the suffering that you encounter in your life is not meaningless, and that our ability to unite our frustrations, pains, and hardships with Christ's sacrifice on the cross makes all the difference in this world (and in the next)!

You're listening to The Jeff Kavens Show. Episode 25, Offer It Up, Finding Meaning in Suffering. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Well, hello, my friend.

Welcome back to the show where we talk about really everything. dealing with discipleship and becoming a modern day disciple of the Lord, looking at very practical things in our life and what it means to follow Christ and how to put his teaching into practice on a daily basis. That's what we're doing here on the show. And your feedback is always welcome. I've been very appreciative of the feedback on iTunes. Many of you have subscribed and have sent emails about the shows

and your response to the shows. My email is simply The Jeff Kaven Show. at ascensionpress.com. That's the Jeff Kaven show. Let me say it again, the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Trying to keep it practical, trying to talk, you know, about issues I'm facing in my everyday life and sharing them with you. And I hope that it's, I hope it's a real blessing to you. I really enjoyed doing it. I got some feedback from some previous shows. We did a show on isolating spiritual disciplines in your life. And that was really talking about how if we want to make progress in our spiritual life, you can't look at the whole thing all at once.

You've got to start to, as they say, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? You've got to start looking at isolating disciplines in your life for 30 days or so and then put them together. And over a year, you're going to have about 12 things that you've made some good progress in. Kevin wrote and said, I listened to your show on isolating religious disciplines. Really enjoyed it, he said. And he identified with much of what I was talking about. And then he goes through a list of some of the things that he has isolated over the last number of months in his own life.

For example, in December, he started praying the rosary every morning on his morning commute. You know, instead of listening to the radio, he's using that time to grow in the Lord and building that muscle memory, if you will. When you get in the car in the morning, Kevin, it's the first thing you think about. Thanks for sharing that. He also said that he started reading the daily readings in the Gospels, bought a Roman. missile and he's starting to really focus on the daily readings. Those are really great, great ideas. Appreciate that. Ray Chelly, I think I've got that right. If I don't have that right, I apologize, but Ray Chelly writes in about a show we did on how to hear God every day.

And that was on Lexio Divina. And she says, I must tell you how much your program on Lexio Divina has helped me. For such a long time, I have been wanting to pray Lexio Divina. But just have not been able to grasp the technique of it. But she said, you broke it down into simple and practical steps, made it relevant to me in a way that no one had before. So she started doing it the very next day, and now she is practicing Lexio de Vina. In other words, hearing God every day of her life. So I appreciate that, Rachelle, for sharing that.

Well, today we want to talk about a topic that is really, really important, and that is really how to deal with suffering. we recall this show offering it up the meaning of suffering finding that meaning of suffering over the years you know i had the opportunity to be a pastor i've had the opportunity to be in tv and radio and write books and speak and i got to tell you if i had the chance to interview everybody that i have met i would find out that in their life somewhere some area they're going through it they're going through a tough time in the area of suffering And it might be in the area of, you know, finances.

It might be in the area of health. It could be a relationship, their marriage, it could be their emotions. It could be work-related. But they're suffering in some way. And I want to talk about that because many people in the Catholic Church who suffer also know about this term called offer it up, this phrase offer it up. But they really don't know the meaning of their suffering or how. to make their suffering, suffering meaningful in their life. And that's what I want to talk about. And I'm going to give you some scriptures. I'm going to give you some quotes from St. John Paul

the 2 that I think are really going to make a difference in your life. And I'm not saying that you're going to look forward to suffering or say, stand up and say, I enjoy suffering, because I don't. I don't look forward to it. And I don't enjoy it particularly. But there's meaning in it. And I've discovered the meaning. And it has made a huge difference. in my life, and I think it will with you as well. So let's jump into that. And at the end of the show, I'm going to pray with you. We're going to offer up our suffering in union with Christ. Once again, all of these scriptures are in the show notes. So if you're driving, they'll be waiting for you in the show notes. If you are at home, just relax and take in the teaching, and you can go

and you can get the show notes. Oh, you can get them ahead of time if you want to and follow along with me. It's really whatever your circumstances are. just go with it okay so i want to start off and uh i want to first of all talk about an element of suffering that uh we often don't think about when i mentioned suffering you know are you suffering have you suffered people automatically will go to these huge big ticket items you know like uh they lost a child they got cancer uh they lost their job they got a broken leg they got the chicken pox whatever it is you know that it's something that it's kind of big but i want to start small together everybody together and i want to talk for a moment about about your ideal day

everybody has an image or a vision of what their ideal day is and it goes something like this my ideal day is a day where my needs are met you know i got breakfast lunch and dinner, stay dry, all of that. I'm gifted at the things I'm doing. I get feedback, positive feedback from people. It's predictable. There's no big surprises, you know, in my ideal day, and I'm doing things that I absolutely enjoy. So for me, for example, an ideal day might be a Saturday morning where I get up early in the morning and everyone's still sleeping and I get a cup of coffee and or I drive my, I ride my Harley-Davidson, you know, a motorcycle up to a coffee shop with my Bible. And I sit and read for a little bit and come home, have a nice breakfast with the family.

Maybe I'll mow the lawn, have a barbecue in the afternoon, maybe go to a twins game or something, you know. And at night, my wife and I will take a walk and have a talk. And that might be an ideal day on a Saturday for me. Now, the problem with your ideal day is that you've got to wake up. and what I mean by that is that you wake up and you'll find out that a lot of days are not ideal days they actually change something unpredictable comes up it's not your wheelhouse you're not gifted you're not getting you know kudos from people your your needs aren't being met it's not your ideal day and when your ideal day meets your less than ideal day there's a collision that takes

place and oftentimes we end up blaming our spouse or blaming our children, blaming our boss or whoever we run from this. We self-medicate. We become angry when our ideal day is quote unquote spoiled. So I don't know how you handle it, but you know, over the years I'd have to say that sometimes I didn't handle it that well when my ideal day was ruined where I get up on a Saturday morning and I'm ready to kind of have my ideal day. And then my wife comes down in the kitchen and this actually happened by the way and she said where are you going and I said what do you mean where am I going I'm going to go for a quick ride you know oh she says didn't you remember and I say remember what and she says oh I'm sorry I thought I put it on the

calendar no you didn't put it on the calendar put what on the calendar she says oh I forgot to tell you that we're going to my cousin's best friends, butchers next door, neighbors, jewelers, uncle's wedding. What? Where? Oh, it's up in St. Cloud, which is 45 minutes north of us in Minnesota. Are you kidding me? That's what we're doing today? And all of a sudden, there, my ideal Saturday is shot. And I don't handle it the best. So I'll say something like, you know what, you could have put this on the calendar. I showed you how to use Google. I I can't believe it. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And suddenly, my ideal day is gone and everybody is upset. Great way to handle it, Jeff. Kudos to you. That's not the way we want to live. And when you talk to people about their life, oftentimes I'll hear this. They'll say, you know, it's only about 30 or 40% of my life that I feel like I'm really living.

And the rest, you know, 55, 60% of my life, I'm just kind of putting up with everything, coasting through, hoping to get to the end, you know. Well, listen, God did not send his son to die for you for 40% of your life. He didn't come and sacrifice his life for you for 55%. He died for you and he redeemed 100% of your life. So what if I told you that there was a way for you to live 100% of your life, and every aspect of your life would have meaning, even the less than ideal days, and the days where you hear that tough news that, you know, you might have an illness or something unfortunate happened at work or in your family. You can live 100% of your life, but you have to know what to do in the tough times, in the days where there is suffering.

That's what I want to talk to you about here. Now, in order to understand the, really the meaning behind suffering, we have to focus on this issue of, is there meaning in your suffering? And I can tell you right away, spoiler, yes, there is meaning in your suffering. And I'm going to show you how to find that meaning in your suffering. Okay. So one of the great writers on suffering and one of the great leaders on suffering is St. John Paul II. St. John Paul II, he wrote a wonderful little book called Salvifichy Dolores. It's a very small little, almost a pamphlet, if you will.

You can get it at the bookstore. You can go online and get it. Go to your Catholic bookstore if you have one and see if you can't get it from them. It's a marvelous small book that really goes into the meaning of suffering and investigates this whole issue of suffering. And what do we do with our suffering? Now, in there, St. John Paul II, he says that there's two kinds of suffering. There's physical suffering, which we've all experienced.

It could be as simple as a cold. It could be a broken leg. It could be a disease, whatever. We've all had physical suffering. The other kind of suffering is moral suffering. That's the suffering of the heart. That's where you are broken inside. The spouse leaves you.

You've been abandoned. You got fired. You lost a child. You were robbed. You're hurting inside. Okay. So you've got physical suffering and you've got moral suffering. Now, there's also two types of suffering. Those are two kinds, he mentions, but there's also two types. And that is temporal suffering, which is the suffering that takes place here in this body on earth. And then there is what's called definitive suffering. And definitive suffering is to be without God, without hope, without love, without justice, without any of this, forever and ever and ever. It's to be without God and all that God is forever and ever. That is definitive suffering. Put it another way, it's like hell. It's to be without God.

That's definitive suffering. Now, what about the meaning? If you, in whatever you're going through right now, if you cannot attach meaning to your suffering, then you can fall into despair. I've seen it happen over and over with people where they're going through physical suffering and this physical suffering beats them down

and they can't attach meaning to it. They don't know why this is happening or if there's any meaning in it and they go into despair. And that can happen. But listen to this. If you can attach meaning to what you're going through right now,

you can go through anything. You can go through absolutely. anything. Let me give you an example, and I use this often, and I think it really illustrates the point, if I had a metal beam, B-E-A-M, a metal beam, one foot high, one foot wide, 30 feet long, and I just set it on the ground, and I said, hey, I'll give you $100 of just walk on that beam. Would you do it? Most people say yes. Now, if I took that beam and I put it up between two buildings, two stories up. Would you walk that beam two stories up for $1,000? Maybe not. What if I took the beam and I put it 50 stories up between two skyscrapers?

And I said there's about a 15 to 20 mile an hour wind. Would you do it for $10 million? Most people say no way. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to risk my life for $10 million. But what if I said this? What if I said that your loved one? Maybe. a son, maybe a daughter, maybe it's mom or dad, maybe your husband, wife is on the other side of that beam and you will never see them again unless you walk that beam. How many people, specifically you, would you walk that beam? The answer is most likely hands up, yes, I would. That's great. So you're willing to die and willing to suffer because you now have attached meaning to it, namely the life of your son, your daughter, whoever it might be. But the question

that I oftentimes like to ask men particularly is, you're willing to die for your family, but are you willing to live for them? By that, I mean, are you willing to go through a slow death? That is to die daily, to give up your life, to not insist on your way for your family because you love them so much? That's what we're talking about. here. There is meaning in your suffering. Now when we take a look at our destiny and what we're really called to in life, I would suggest you read the first paragraph of the catechism because it really sums up the Christian life so well. You know, it talks about how God goes in search for us, gathers us together in his church, his family, and he adopts us as sons and daughters,

and he wants us to participate and share in the life of the Trinity. That's really what the goal is. And so our goal is really to live in the life of the Trinity, to live like God. And suffering is one of those areas where we can do it. Now, I'll just cut to the chase and go to the end real quick, and then we'll come back. The meaning of your suffering is found in Christ. The meaning of your suffering is found in being in Jesus Christ and his suffering. You might remember in Luke chapter 24 on the Emmaus Road, Jesus was walking with the two people, Cleopis and another, and he began to talk to them,

and he said to them, he told them all about how he had to suffer. And he used the whole Old Testament to do this, how he had to suffer many things. And that's what he did. Jesus loved us. God so loved us that he redeemed us by employing physical and moral suffering in the temporal order. and he paid the price for us and he loved us and he suffered for us that is how he loved us now sometimes you know when we say well describe to me what does love feel like people will describe it in terms of very romantic notions you know and ui-goo warm fuzzy inner feelings and

attraction but i would ask you this what do you think the cross felt like that jesus hung on feels you see love can be very romantic and very wonderful and warm and and you know heartfelt but love in action oftentimes manifests itself in suffering for someone Jesus put it this way that a friend is willing to lay down his life for another okay to it for another friend love is pouring yourself out it is looking out for the best of the other person. And suffering is a part of the original sin in the fall, and we all struggle with it in our lives. Now, for years, and I want to kind of focus here on the meaning of suffering. For years, I did not understand. Where's the meaning in my suffering? What does it

mean to offer it up. And it wasn't until I came back to the Catholic Church that my eyes were really open. And one particular verse really opened my eyes. And I want to talk about that verse. I'm going to take a break right now. When I come back, I'm going to share that verse with you and then go into how we find meaning in our suffering as we walk with Jesus. Okay? You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. We'll be back in just a moment. The Bible is such an important part of our Catholic faith, but it's not always easy to understand. There are 73 separate books and so many names, places, and events that sometimes we just stop trying to figure out how it all fits together. The good news is, the Great Adventure Bible studies make it easy for you to understand the Bible.

By focusing on the story that ties all of Scripture together, the Great Adventure Bible studies give you the big picture of the Bible. And once you see the big picture of salvation history, the Mass. will make more sense. The Catholic faith will make more sense, and you will see how God has a loving plan for your life. The Great Adventure Bible Studies have helped hundreds of thousands of people to understand the Bible and grow closer to Christ. There's no other Catholic Bible study series like it, and you can get started on the Great Adventure today by creating your free account at ascensionpress.com. Welcome back. We're talking about offering it up. finding meaning and suffering.

And before the break there, I mentioned to you that I was going to share with you one particular scripture, which really opened this whole thing up for me, and I know it will for you too. And it comes from Colossians chapter 1 and verse 24. And here's how it goes. This is what the super apostle St. Paul said to the Colossians. He said, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. All right, let's pause there. Not on the same page.

that's the way I always felt about that is like Paul what are you talking about I rejoice in my suffering the only way that Paul could have rejoiced in his suffering is if he had seen something in the suffering that was worth rejoicing about okay because I would have wrote it like this I complain in my sufferings for your sake mine wouldn't have gone very far but he said now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my floor I complete, or one translation says, I fill up that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, that is, the church. Did you get that? Doesn't that sound strange to you? What sounds strange to you? What sounds strange to me is I am filling up in my body

what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Now, what could possibly be lacking in the sufferings of Christ, honestly. What could be lacking in the sufferings of Christ? Well, St. Augustine asked that question, and St. John Paul II asked that question. What could be lacking in the sufferings of Christ? St. Augustine said that what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ is the participation of the mystical body of Christ, that is the church. In other words, what's missing is our contribution, our participation in the sufferings of Christ. We'll get back to that in a moment here. But St. John Paul II said,

nothing is really lacking in the sufferings of Christ, but that you might come to know the love of God. Or I would put it this way, that you might come to know and taste and feel the love of God. He has made room in his suffering for you to participate. In other words, Jesus loves you so much, and he wants you to know the love of the Trinity so much that he's going to allow you to participate in this love that he loves with,

which involves suffering at times. It's brilliant. It is a brilliant plan, but it is contrary to the way the world thinks, isn't it? The world thinks that if God loves you, he's going to keep you from all suffering. And honestly, I don't want my kids to suffer, but I do know they're going to grow through it. And if God knew that you would become more like him by experiencing what he experienced and participating in the suffering, don't you think that's a good thing? I do. I think it's a wonderful thing that God would want me to know his love, not by just textbook or lecture, but by participating. And that is something that St. John Paul II said, which I think is worthy of repeating.

He said that you cannot teach suffering in the objective. In other words, this isn't just a a podcast or a course, he said, suffering is a vocation. Come follow me. And it's in the following of Jesus and in the participation that you come to really know what love is and what true suffering is. Okay. So Colossians 124 is really, really important. And I want to go back to this thing that St. Augustine said, and that is that what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ is the participation of the mystical body of Christ, which is the church. Now, this leads me to my next point, which is really delving into and discovering the nature of the relationship between the head and the body, between the head who is Christ in the body,

which is the church. What is the relationship between Christ and his church in terms of suffering? Well, I think it'll surprise you as we begin to look at this, that we are much closer to Jesus in participating in his mission than we ever thought before. But there are two ways of looking at this relationship. One is very popular on TV, is very popular with Health and Wealth Gospel. The other is a biblical view of the relationship between the head and the body, and, by the way, it's the Catholic view. The view that is very American and popular on television would,

espouse this. They would say, Jesus did it all. He's the king. He's the judge. He is the one intercessor between God and man. He is the one who suffered. He is the one who died. He's the shepherd. All true. But they would then say, our role as the church is to simply receive, receive, receive all the benefits. Now, the problem with that view is that it's not biblical. Okay? We hear, you know, in the Bible, things like 1. Peter 4.13, rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. 1. Peter 419, therefore let those who suffer according to God's will do right

and entrust their souls to a faithful creator. We have a lot of scriptures that talk about how we participate in suffering and how it benefits us. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1.5, and he said, for as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. So my point is this, is that that view of the head in the body is not biblical, and it's very, very much an American gospel.

Now, on the other hand, the Bible does teach that he is all those things. He is the judge. He is the king. He is the one who is the intercessor, the one who suffered and died for the sins of the world, and he's the shepherd. He's all that. But here's the key. He doesn't keep all that to himself. He shares all these items in his messianic mission with us, the church. Everything that he did, he shares with us, and we now are the body of Christ. And so is he the one intercessor between God and man absolutely he is yet he shares that intercessory role with the church and he says you pray for one another in my name is he the king yes but we share in that kingly role is he the great high priest yes he is but he shares the priesthood with the clerical priesthood and the priesthood of the believers like you and me is he is he the one who suffered for the sins of the world absolutely but he shares that with us, that we would participate with him in loving the world. And here's the real kicker. He died for us. Does that mean that you're not going to have to die? Well, you're going to have

to die to yourself. He died for our sins, but we die with him. And as Paul said, I die daily. Now, Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, I think it was very good. He said that, you know, fear of death is our number one fear. He said that in America, one of the reasons that we fear death so much is because we don't practice for it. We don't know what it means to die to ourselves. Everything we do, we push death away, the money we spend, the exercise, everything, we're pushing this away. And that's okay, you know, to exercise and eat well and so forth. Nothing wrong with that. But we are foreign strangers when it comes to death. Because we don't die daily and he said the best way to overcome this fear of death is to die daily is to buffet your

body make it your slave in a sense and offer up your life daily for others it's a beautiful thing really now what about this meaning of suffering when you look at the catholic view the biblical view of the head and the body you will see that yes we do suffer with him we die with him. We do everything with him. And this means that you have an opportunity to walk as Jesus walked. I like the way that St. John Paul II put this. He said about suffering. He said in Salvifici Dolores, paragraph 26. It's in the show notes. For suffering cannot be transformed and changed by the grace from outside, but from within. And Christ, through his own self, that the suffering is very much present in every human suffering

and can act from within that suffering by the powers of his spirit of truth is his consoling spirit. But listen to this. This is my favorite quote of his in paragraph 27 of that document. He says, the springs of divine power gush forth precisely in the midst of human weakness. Those who share in the sufferings of Christ

preserved in their own sufferings of a very special particle of the infinite treasury of God's, of the world's redemption and can share this treasure with others. Let me read that again. Paragraph 27 of Salvitio Dolores, The springs of divine power gush forth. I love that gush forth, precisely in the midst of human weakness. If you're weak, my friend, right now, you've got an opportunity for God's power to gush in your life. Those who share in the sufferings of Christ, preserve in their own sufferings a very special particle of the infinite treasure of the world's redemption. And get this, you can share that treasure with others. In other words, your suffering,

if it's united to Jesus, has redemptive power. So how do we do this? How do we attach the meaning to our suffering if we're going through something right now? We know that Jesus loved us, and there's power in his suffering for the world. How does our suffering get affected? Well, number one, if you're baptized, you're in Christ. If you're in Christ, all things are new. All things are new. All right? Now, what we need to do in our suffering, whatever you're going through, is we need to, by an act of the will, offer up our suffering, in union with Jesus' suffering. And when that happens, your suffering is changed. It's in Christ. All things are new. And it has salvific power. or as I like to call it, heavenly cash. One writer put it this way.

It was marvelous. She said, in your suffering, you possess an amazing coin. And that amazing coin that you have, she said, can purchase what cannot be bought. And what is that? It's the souls of people. It's to influence your grandchildren, your children, with the grace of God. You can offer up your suffering for them. You can purchase what cannot be bought.

Your suffering has an amazing value to it. I love that. It's just really very, very powerful. Paul said that when we walk this way and we offer up our suffering for others, he says, we are fellow heirs with Christ, Romans 8, 17 and 18. We are fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. He said, I consider that the suffering.

of this present time are not worth comparing with the joy, the glory that is to be revealed in us. So you have an opportunity in your suffering today to offer it up in union with Christ, whether it's a less than ideal day, or you found out you got cancer, or your spouse left you and you've got that pain in your heart, you can take this and offer it up in union with Christ. Your suffering is transformed, and you can even apply this to loved ones. In other words, you've got an opportunity to love. You have an opportunity to love. The meaning is you being in Christ. That's where the meaning comes in and all things change. I like what Bishop Bruskowitz said in Lincoln, Nebraska, in his book, he said that in mass we experience the great exchange where we bring

bread to Christ and he gives us his body. We bring wine and he gives us his blood. But get this, we bring him our suffering. We bring him our victories. We bring him our victories. We bring him those less than ideal days and he gives us heavenly cash that we can apply to others we can know the love of god and participate in his suffering isn't that beautiful i love that i love that it's it's amazing you know if you feel weak in your life right now or you're sick or whatever it might be my friend you are right in a place where god can do amazing things in your life paul said it he suffering was some kind of thorn in the flesh, and he pled with the Lord three times. And in 2 Corinthians 12, 9, God responded to him and said, Paul, my grace, which what is grace?

Grace is the life of the Trinity. My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. So when we are weak, we are strong. If we will take that ailment, that less than ideal day, wrap it up, give it to Jesus, and let him transform it. Now, I want to tell you a quick story before we end this that happened in my life when I had the experience of really knowing this firsthand. It was about, I think, 2001, something like that. I had a terrible neck injury. Long and short of it is that my C-6-7 and my neck had shattered, basically,

and fallen apart. I think it was due to a football accident or a football hit back in high school that it started. but it ended up being very painful, very, very painful. And I spent about nine months studying, scripture, churches teaching, talking to friends about how to offer it up, what's the meaning of suffering? And to be honest with you, I don't suffer well. And I found it so hard, and I was mentally beaten down. It had been month after month, I couldn't sleep well, it was hurting.

My left side of my body was hurting because of the nerve. damage and the nerve pain due to the C-6-7 injury and I remember one night I got up and I went downstairs and I went downstairs I sat on the couch and I'll be honest with you I just I just start crying and I start crying I just said God I can't take this anymore I can't live like this I don't know what I'm going to do and doctors have tried all these different things I don't know what I'm going to do and I said Lord, how do I offer it up? How do I do it? And it was just like a flash. I heard the words in my heart. A shoe company went on and used him and made a lot of money. In all seriousness, I heard the

words, just do it. Just do it. And so I went upstairs to my daughter's room. Two of the little girls, my youngest ones were asleep, hard to wake them up. And I looked at them laying in their beds and I held my arm and I went over to the next of their bed and I knelt down and I just raised my one good arm up to the Lord. I said, oh God, I offer this up. I offer this pain up for my daughter. I offer it up for my girls, Lord, everything I'm going through. I give it to you, transform my suffering and use it, Lord. May I participate in your love and your sacrifice? And I just sat there and cried. They didn't wake up. But I'll tell you what, something happened. A joy that I had never experienced before rose up in my heart as I realized that for the first time I was loving my

daughters as Christ loved me on the cross as he hung there saying in his heart for Jeff for Jeff I tapped in to the mystery of suffering and experienced a joy that I'd read about in some of the saints and didn't get I used to read their writings you know and they'd say oh Lord you love me so much you allowed me to suffer and I'm like I don't get that and that day I did and since then the sting of suffering is gone the fear is gone because there's meaning in it and whether it is just a less than ideal day or whether it is a day where I get a call from the doctor and it's devastating I can offer this up in other words I can live 100% of my life so let me let me draw this all to kind of a conclusion and to do that I want to share with you just a couple of

quotes from John Paul II once again. He said that in the cross of Christ, not only is the redemption accomplished through suffering, but get this, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed. So I want to leave you with that thought that your suffering has been redeemed. In other words, it's worth something. And he said in paragraph 27 of the same document, Salvifichy Dolores, it is suffering more than anything else which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. If you're going through it now, I want you to know that right now, your suffering is clearing the way for God's grace to transform you. And then finally, paragraph 26 of the document, he said, down through the centuries and generations, it has been seen that in

suffering, there is concealed a particular power that draws a person interiorly close to Christ a special grace. So what I like you to do, and I'm going to do it too, is we're going to take our suffering and we're going to bring this to Christ. We're not going to run from him. We're not going to blame. We're not going to run. We're not going to self-medicate. We're going to come to him. It's going to draw us. The suffering will draw us to him, and we're going to prepare ourselves to have our souls transformed and it's it's he said it's through suffering more more than anything else that you can be transformed so shall we do that whether it's your less than ideal day or whether you're going through really difficult times physically or in your heart right now let's bring it

to the lord shall we in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit lord we thank you for the opportunity to sit at your feet and learn your ways your heart your plan Lord, we bring to you our suffering, and we offer it up to you. And we ask you, Lord, to take this suffering which has been redeemed and transform our hearts and use it at the same time for your purposes. Thank you that you have allowed us to know and to feel to touch the love of God by offering our own suffering. May you be glorified in our suffering.

In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen. Once again, encourage you to give me a note on the show. How are you doing? It's the Jeff Kaven Show, The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com and go on iTunes and leave a comment. God bless you. You have a great way.