|
The experience of sexual abuse can cripple a person's whole life and make them feel confused, isolated, angry and alone and wondering where God was in it all. FR JOHN DESMOND, was himself abused as a young person by a Catholic priest, but has found that sharing his own pain and suffering has helped to bring support and healing to others. In his book "My One Friend is Darkeness: A Lament for those who weep" he shows how certain parts of the Scriptures have helped him to be able to give voice to what can seem unacceptable emotions. CATHERINE MCLOUGHLIN, who suffers from ME, writes about some of the insights that the book has given her.
|
My
one friend is darkness|
Rather than tell his story in detail, Fr Desmond who has written
elswhere on prayer and depression, focuses on the "Psalms of
Lament" as well as the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes - those
parts of the Bible which question the nature of prayer, faith and
God himself - and he shows how they can help those experiencing acute
distress. "One of the great lacks I have seen in my lived experience
of the Church", he says, "is the sidelining of the psalms
of lament, of cursing (imprecation) and the avoidance of such books
as Job and Ecclesiastes. The difficult parts of these works are kept
discreetly out of view. Yet they provide a resource to articulate
our feelings, and to do it within a context of prayer, acceptance
and faith."
|
