Our ability to offer up suffering is a profound reality. When we are suffering, “offer it up” may be the last thing we want to hear, but Jackie brings us back to its core meaning. To offer up suffering gives purpose to our pain by uniting it to Christ’s passion, and making it a prayer for someone else’s salvation or healing—as Christ did for us.
Jackie discusses how the saints knew the power that suffering can have to bring about the conversion of lost souls, and shares how offering up her labor pains for the salvation of a loved one helped pull her through a tough day of labor.
“It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
Romans 8:16-17
To find out more about Ascension’s upcoming study on Romans, click here.
“If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering … You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone.”
St. Faustina