Not so tragic suffering

[3toraiseup]

How does God look upon our suffering when we are 'just kinda' suffering? My life is a heap of sadness and stress right now, enough that I'm falling beneath the weight of my cross. That said, what I face is nothing compared to what others go through.

Someone said to me that everything is relative, but is it really? How does anything compare with the recent Tsunami victims that have lost literally everything? Does God look down upon those that He has richly blessed and hope that we will rise above the small stuff? I guess what I'm asking is if small suffering is valid and embraceable, or is it something that should be cast aside?

 

[DivineFiliation]

3toraiseup, I'm so sorry you are going through so much right now. I'm glad that you are here. It is good that you realize that we all have our crosses and some suffer differently than others... that said, it does not diminish what you are going through but rather keeps it in perspective. Might I share a few prayers with you...

Into Thy Hands, O Lord, and into the hands of Thy holy Angels, I commit and entrust this day my soul, my relatives, my benefactors, my friends and enemies, and all Thy Catholic people. Keep us, O Lord, through the day, by the merits and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all Thy Saints, from all vicious and unruly desires, from all sins and temptations of the devil, and from sudden and unprovided death and the pains of hell. Enlighten my heart with the grace of Thy Holy Spirit; grant that I may always be obedient to Thy commandments; suffer me not to be separated from Thee, O God, who livest and reignest with God the Father and the same Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more. Amen.

Behold me, my beloved Jesus, weighed down under the burden of my trials and sufferings, I cast myself at Your feet, that You may renew my strength and my courage, while I rest here in Your Presence. Permit me to lay down my cross in Your Sacred Heart,for only Your infinite goodness can sustain me; only Your love can help me bear my cross; only Your powerful hand can lighten its weight. O Divine King, Jesus,whose heart is so compassionate to the afflicted, I wish to live in You; suffer and die in You. During my life be to me my model and my support; At the hour of my death, be my hope and my refuge. Amen.

God, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good & bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you & my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here to do Your bidding. Amen.

 

[Metanoia02]

How does God look upon our suffering when we are 'just kinda' suffering? My life is a heap of sadness and stress right now, enough that I'm falling beneath the weight of my cross. That said, what I face is nothing compared to what others go through.

Someone said to me that everything is relative, but is it really? How does anything compare with the recent Tsunami victims that have lost literally everything? Does God look down upon those that He has richly blessed and hope that we will rise above the small stuff? I guess what I'm asking is if small suffering is valid and embraceable, or is it something that should be cast aside?

Allow me to quote my favorite Saint, St Josemaria Escriva:

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Many who would willingly let themselves be nailed to a Cross before the astonished gaze of a thousand onlookers cannot bear with a christian spirit the pinpricks of each day! Think, then, which is the more heroic.

 

[ShannonMcCatholic]

Kati- my spiritual director said to me as I lamented the same sort of thing -"Why do you think your crosses to be small? If they were small, why is our culture so against being open to life? Why do so few people have large families?"

It is an enormous Cross to bear, one for which there is very little fanfare, as is the case with almost all domestic duties. We are gifted to have great Crosses to bear almost completely unseen and mostly unrewarded in this life.

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us" Romans 8:18

Take a minute to dig out your Bible and read a couple times all of Romans 8!!

I'll keep you in prayer- will you do the same for me?

 

[3toraiseup]

Shakkai, thank you for the beautiful prayers. When I have some quiet time, I will spend more time with them.

Metanoia, what a powerful statement you shared! St Josemaria's words speak volumes to me.

Shannon, I do wonder that. Why my crosses are so small, when others are so big. I struggle with guilt over suffering from such petty problems. I am in a strange place right now because it is a time of heavy stress and sadness for my husband and I. Instead of wanting God to remove my suffering, I have been praying for Him to keep me free of self-pity. I don't seem to mind the suffering (if that makes sense), I just wonder if I were stronger and more heavenly-minded, if these things would even cause me grief. IOW, are these sufferings... these pin pricks of life a valid cross - or should they be put down and ignored?

 

[St_Joseph_Cupertino]

Well, Kati,

No, I don't think they should be ignored.

I'm sorta in the same boat. My work is really tough for me. High stress, some people are really anti-religion....let alone anti-catholic here...it all piles up.
I think these things are part of our lives for a reason. I know it sure keeps me humble! It opens my eyes to my shortcomings and help me grow.
Now, having said that, some days are still pretty ****** days at work, but this way I learn how to interact better, be a better example, amongst other things.

So, I do not think that they should be thrown away or ignored, these relatively "little crosses". They are part of our daily lives, it's still our cross to bear. At least for the time being...Maybe I am in training for something bigger that requires things I learnt whilst carrying my "little crosses"......who knows?

I know how you fell. It's feels bad complaining about my bad days at the office when there is so much real suffering around. That realisation also helps me handle my problems easier, but they are still problems. It is what you have to suffer through at this point in your life.

I hope my rambings made some sense.

Peace in Christ!

 

[ZooMom]

Kati I think that all suffering should be offered up. There is no cross too large or too small, that our Lord will not help us to bear. No burden that we cannot lay at the foot of His cross. Be patient and persevere. I am so sorry for the trouble you are having. You and yours are in my prayers. God bless and keep you!

Peace be with you!

Sandy

 

[Carrye]

Someone said to me that everything is relative, but is it really? How does anything compare with the recent Tsunami victims that have lost literally everything? Does God look down upon those that He has richly blessed and hope that we will rise above the small stuff? I guess what I'm asking is if small suffering is valid and embraceable, or is it something that should be cast aside

Relative, no; personal, yes. God didn't ask you to bear the tsunami. He didn't ask you to bear poverty, or hunger. He asked you to be Kati. Do not cast your sufferings aside, but embrace them - all of them. What were St. Paul's words, "I rejoice in my suffering for Your sake". Make those words yours. And know that in suffering is obedience. Obedience is your gift to God.

 

[Sacha Saint Francis]

Hi Kati,

If I might add my two cents worth...

In the words of my Sponsor: All that passes through our hearts, passes first through the heart of Jesus.

This world measures everything by worldy standards, standards that the eye can see mostly. Emotions are right up there with the Spiritual things, that by their very nature must be measured differently. I agree that the small pinpricks are the things that the evil one uses to dislodge us off our course!

Bear in mind, that the sufferings you refer to as small, might very well be small-ish, if beheld in isolation. But I'm sure that you have MANY such sufferings, and that last little one could just be like the "straw that broke the camels' back". They all add up. Like the little drops of rain that fell into the dam which made the dam wall break.

Finally, any good phsycologist will warn you of the danger of invalidating your emotions. If you feel that your sufferings are enormous, then yes they are! Simply by virtue of your perception! As CLSkinner said above, it's not relative - it's personal. And remember how Jesus cried tears of blood in Gethsemene. It's certainly ok to be sad and feel weighed down under the burden.

Hope this helps. Hang in there! Like they repeat in the bible "and it came to pass..." all things come to pass eventually.

Sacha

 

[ShannonMcCatholic]

Also remember that we are given whatever is PERFECT for us to gain heaven. For some there are huge obstacles to overcome, for others a lifetime of small obstacles-- whatever we each need to cling completely to Christ.

I think that this type of struggle is meant to distance us from uniting ourselves to the Cross- for apart from the Cross suffering is merely suffering. Satan uses our discouragement to remove us from living our lives clinging to the Cross. We are called to live lives of victory, of confidence, and knowing that we are never abanndoned. We are tempted to see what we have as not being as important or as good-- when each of us, being individually perfected, make up the body of Christ. If we abandon our part- there is no one who can take our place.
Also remember Jesus knows exactly what our inclinations are- even when we don't-- it could be that a bigger, more visible Cross might be disaterous for a soul- who might become prideful in how well they are handling the situation. Or perhaps if a soul must continually struggle with small Crosses- that soul would be overcome with discouragement. We must remember that God can see the whole book all at once, whilst we can only see two pages at a time and must read line by line, word by word.

The supreme Cross is joyfully accepting what comes to us each day in our daily duty and offering alll to Christ- no more, no less.

Another tidbit from St. Escriva that puts those lines into perspective,I think, is that St. Escriva writes how he struggled every morning with butter. Somedays he would win and mortify himself by not putting butter on his bread-- and other days he would lose and give in to the temptation to forego butter and indulge. Butter is merely a trifle-- but in the context it is learning how to accept our small sufferings to unite them with the Crucible.

We cannot desire bigger crosses- we must learn to lovingly accept first those that are sent to us in day to day life-- remembering always that our perfection lies precisely in doing small things with great love!!

 

[D'Ann]

Dear Kati,

In God's eyes, I would think suffering is suffering. How do we measure God's love? How do we measure the love we have for our children? Perhaps, suffering is measured in the same way as love? IOWs your suffering is as important as those who are suffering maybe more or less than you. God measures by individual's own heart. I don't have scripture and verse other than: Rom. 8:28 - All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

IOWs eventually even for those effected by the Tsunami, who are suffering in such a devastating and horrifying and heartbreaking way - all will work out (eventually) for good.... even if they end up waiting until they get into heaven and see their love ones there.

Your suffering is not minimum and you do matter, and your heartache and sadness is as much important as anyone else who maybe going through more or less of a sad situation themselves.

God's Peace,

D'Ann

 

[DivineFiliation]

Also remember that we are given whatever is PERFECT for us to gain heaven. For some there are huge obstacles to overcome, for others a lifetime of small obstacles-- whatever we each need to cling completely to Christ.

I hadn't thought of it that way... thank you so much Shannon for this reply!

 

[ShannonMcCatholic]

I hadn't thought of it that way... thank you so much Shannon for this reply!

Isn't the Holy Spirit awesome- the other day Michelle posted the exact thing I needed to hear!