Suffering with a Purpose

Description

A sound Catholic answer to the most vexing problem that every soul must face

The greatest test of your faith won’t come from Bible-quoting Protestants or polite young Mormons on bicycles! No, your greatest test will be whether you will trust God when you suffer, or whether you will, in the words of Job’s wife, “curse God and die.”

In Suffering with a Purpose, Dom Hubert van Zeller helps you prepare now for all your sufferings by enabling you to see them with the eyes of the Spirit.

Van Zeller, the wise author of Holiness for Housewives, maintains that you can understand the mystery of suffering only by means of the Passion of Christ. In this book, he explores the fourteen Stations of the Cross, plumbing the inner meanings of each in order to reveal why there has to be pain, and what you should do (and should not do) about it.

In his explorations of the Stations, van Zeller finds a great deal to help you in dark times. He reminds you that suffering, properly understood, cannot and should not extinguish happiness, and shows you how to accept your crosses with love. He reveals how you can learn from Christ Himself to turn your failures into victories, and to alleviate others’ suffering by imitating Mary’s compassion.

Above all, van Zeller shows you that suffering has a purpose, and he uses Christ’s Passion to sharpen your vision of life’s meaning. With help from this perceptive book, you’ll learn how not to grow disheartened or to give in to discouragement, but to see your crosses for what they are, and to bear them with perseverance.

Make your sufferings a path to salvation as Dom van Zeller shows you:

Mary: why she is your best example of how to understand and accept your sufferings
How you can grow holy and give glory to God even in the crosses that you feel too weak to carry
Christ’s falls on the way of the Cross: what they teach you about your own sorrows
The importance of being willing to share the sufferings of others, and to carry their crosses as if they were your own: do you dare?
Christ: the astounding significance of His decision to appear among men as a failure
Why it’s not healthier to focus on enjoying life and to try to avoid all suffering
The secret that can turn your sorrow into a supernatural sacrifice — if you allow it to do so
Two insights the Crucifixion, properly understood, will give you into your sufferings
Detachment: why you should begin praying now to be freed from your attachment to the things of this world
The man of faith’s hidden reservoir of strength in times of suffering: do you have it?
You have a part to play in the redemption of the world: are you willing to play it? What it has to do with your daily sufferings
Compassion: why you must show it toward others — and more importantly, to yourself
The Mass: why it contains the key to your ability to accept your sufferings
Plus: more to help you gain the strength to meet your sufferings with abiding faith!
“Splendid and timely!”
Regis Martin
The Last Things: Death, Judgement, Hell, Heaven