Redemptive suffering

Thank you Father Bobby for sharing how and why we should make our suffering an instrument of salvation. Suffering need not be heedless or wasted. It can be more powerful than we think if we let God enter into our suffering and transform it.

Certainly suffering is never welcome

We don’t usually wish it on ourselves

But God is bigger than anyone or anything

So we can make it work for us

using it to save others’ souls 

while bringing comfort and consolation.

For redemptive suffering helps us

grow in holiness even as we make amends

for our own sins and shortcomings, 

All in one intentional act of selflessness.

Suffering can be an invitation to love more:

As we pray for family, friends and strangers

Where even enemies become brothers and sisters,

For sharing the same cup of bitterness unites us 

lending power to our painful prayer offerings,

We become more Christ-like when we choose to care.  

Let’s not forget the holy souls in purgatory, 

Especially those we’ve loved and lost,

Our own reparation is refined in our intercession

So pray for a thousand souls each day

Remember the nameless and faceless.

Nothing could be sweeter than eucharistia, 

As we lift our hands and hearts in thanksgiving,

At that sublime, sacred moment,

Our hearts and Christ’s are one.

The cross never looked more beautiful, more radiant. 

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!