Preach through the Pain of Suffering

Preach through the Pain of Suffering

I speak via the pen of faith and I touch all within the words of pain.  It isn’t necessarily my pain or the loss of abilities the Spirit has given me, it is the grace that God generously imbeds within my heart.  

The world is hurting because of the sin we’ve inherited and the sun is rising over the hills that reveals he is near; can’t you feel the breeze of new life through Christ knocking at the door of our believing heart?

If I do not sense the emptiness so many have attached themselves with, then my efforts have failed as they are lost without our words, our understanding, and our very mandate to reach all whom the Spirit has presented to us.  The words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel; “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  (Mt.7: 7 - 11).  Because of Christ’s calling you and me we are the ones to hear, answer the quest for those who are seeking, and stand ready to open the door for souls facing an empty world with little or no way to salvation.  

If our mission forgets how suffering of others refers back to us then we will have missed our task of preaching through suffering.   When one hurts we all hurt, when one is lost we all are susceptible to loss as well.  We don’t have the freedom to remain quiet when souls are crying out for God, even when they are not certain what they are seeking.  

Write, speak, and become heralds of the grace God has given us and continue to evangelize the very salvation that we have to give away

As our ability to reach souls through us remember we are Roman Catholics and the essence of our teaching should reflect the Sacraments, the Transubstantiation - the real presence of Christ in the Body and the Blood , and the virtues that a Catholic needs to learn who God is.  Therein is the true gift we have been given as Christ’s emissaries.

Ralph B. Hathaway, August 21, 2022