www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Suffering

Hello everyone .... it seems that in the passed several days, many things have come across my path about Christian suffering. This is not something spoken of often in the churches I previously attended ... and when the subject came up, it was something to be "gotten rid of," to "be prayed against," and always the result of sin, either our own or someone elses. The passed many years have been extremely difficult ones for me, in many ways, but even with all of that I know that had it not been for those same difficulties, I may have never heard God's Call to me into Orthodoxy ... indeed it would have likely been unheard, or unanswered. So, now I am at a place, where suffering of a different type continues, and I wonder just what this is doing within me. Somehow, finally coming to understand that Christian suffering, while certainly not something I find "joyful" at all, is not nearly as heavy as I always found it. There is a somewhat lighter sense knowing this is part of "my cross" ... a small piece perhaps of Col. 1:24.
Thanks all for listening to me "gather wool."
abby
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Dearest Abby,

It is interesting that you bring up this topic today. On the Orthodox (new) calendar, we honour the Righteous Job of the Old Testament today--

His suffering and great holiness in following the Lord despite all his sufferings and trials makes him an awesome example to look to, and one which we can pray today for his intercessions on behalf of the trials we all face.

May Righteous Job intercede to the Lord God for us...Amen.

Alice

ahh, all too often our brothers and sisters bypass the peace of Scripture that says...

Peter bids us rejoice over this fact. He would have us be glad because we have been called to share the tribulations of the glorified Saviour. "Rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings" (1 Pet. iv. 13).

"For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh . . . . So then death worketh in us but life in you" (2 Cor. iv. 11).

Christ is Risen!!

Some time ago we had a thread in the Scripture and Patristic section. I went back to find it and made it sticky for you in the hope that it might provide you with something to work with in understanding the Catholic and Orthodox approach to suffering.

BOB

I'm sorry Bob .... "sticky?"
Help?
abby
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Abby, I guess "sticky" means that you find the thread at the top of the list in that section. Anyway, here it is:

https://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/265219/Suffering%20is%20our%20path%20to%20glory

The problem of evil and suffering is very difficult to talk about. Really, suffering makes a person more like our Lord Jesus Christ. But, of course, that's not much of a consolation to someone who doesn't share our faith in the Lord. Even to someone who truly believes, it can be scant comfort at times.

Alice, the holy and righteous Job is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on May 10 (just a few days later than in the Greek Orthodox Church), in the typically laconic Roman idiom:

"The commemoration of Saint Job, a man of admirable patience in the land of Uz."

May Saint Job intercede for us all.

Thanks for the link Latin Catholic.
abby
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