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The Redeptive Power of Suffering
Greg Crowhurst , a registered nurse, with qualifications in counselling, is now a full time carer of his wife Linda, who has been ill with ME for many years. The couple have been greatly inspired and helped in their journey through meditating and reflecting on the papal document Salvifici Doloris. This, and the insights they have gained, has led Greg to write a wonderful book of reflections on the power of redemptive suffering. Below are a couple of edited extracts from the book "Beyond Normal Prayer" including two of Linda's prayers and reflections
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"Calvary is a powerful place"
"Gifts of wisdom and insight" Born of the mystery of Redemption in the Cross of Christ, the Church has to try to meet man in a special way on the path of his suffering. In this meeting man "becomes the way for the Church", and this way is one of the most important ones. (Salvifici Doloris 3) Those who suffer, those who have chosen to walk intimately with the suffering Christ and thus enter into the mystery of Redemption, are given tremendous gifts of wisdom, prayer, insight, knowledge and love of Christ. They are given great compassion and they come to know the mercy of God so intimately that they can and must be pivotal in the life of the Church. In their closeness and walk with the suffering Christ they have much to offer, in fact, the whole array of the Gifts of the Spirit will be manifested in them. The Church, to be fully alive in the Spirit, has an obligation to reach out and open itself to these Graces. "Gift of Suffering" Those who suffer must not be ignored, for they bring the truth of Redemption, the love of the Trinity into our awareness. To ignore them is to ignore Christ and to not understand the meaning of the gift of suffering; it is to ignore the meaning of Love poured out upon the Cross. It is in this meeting place of suffering that man and Christ become one most intimately. This connection is essential to the aliveness of the Church. It is how we can genuinely become disciples, because it is when we reach out and find Christ in all his suffering and glory that we begin to open our hearts truly to love - to be able to receive, know and give love.Through this, compassion is born in us. Thus a Church connected to this awareness finds its true direction, living in compassion, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is then, assuredly, very near! Grant us the wisdom
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Naked,
that is how Christ hung on the Cross. Trying to hold on somehow, that
is how Mary, his mother stood with him at the foot of the Cross. Outside
on the edge, that is where the Cross stood. Stripped of everything,
that is how my wife has been for many years, every moment an unimaginable
moment of agony. Research has show that her condition, severe ME, is
equivalent to that of an AIDS sufferer two months before death, and
that only in terminally ill cancer and stroke patients is the sickness
impact profile greater. Day after day, year after year, being there,
loving her, wanting God to take away the torment, that is how I have
been. All the usual things taken away: job, career, money, status, friends,
holiday and treats, yet still trying to live our marriage. Outside,
on the edge, existing on the borderlines, that is where we both are
- sufferer 
When
intense physical, emotional, spiritual or mental suffering comes to
you, you have a stark choice. Either you enter more deeply into the
meaning of suffering, where you find Christ, not just as a theological
idea or someone somewhere else, but living, alive with you, more deeply
that you could ever have imagined before this suffering came upon you;
or you choose a path of fear and despair. Suffering sometimes is so
great that the only way is through it, where there is no alternative
other than to be in it. Asking the "why" of suffering can
lead to helplessness and despair. Asking "how" as my wife
and I have found, can lead to hope and freedom because the path of suffering,
is a mystical union with Christ, through him, with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, which leads you on a profound journey where you discover
that you too can be part of the Redemptive cycle of love. You too can
offer up your own torment for the healing of the world and even more
profoundly than that, you can fully enter into the mystery of the Cross
and even dare to offer your heart to the One who suffers for all.