Listening to God through Pain, page 3
The have helped scores of people to navigate life’s stormy seas in the traditional Passionist “front parlor” and retreat house ministry at St. Paul’s Monastery and Retreat House in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Q: In your many years of priestly ministry,how have you seen the grace of God at work in the people you have served, and what have you learned?
Fr. Tim: I have seen heroic virtue in so many of the people whom I have listened to and learned from. What a humbling and healing experience it is to witness the tenacious faith of those hit hard over and over again by sickness, death of loved ones, betrayal (especially of a spouse), injustice (especially from the church), unemployment, unrelenting darkness in prayer, loss of faith by loved ones. The list is long.
Father Timothy Fitzgerald, C.P.
But people’s faith response to horrific life experiences is more than exemplary. It is a constant reminder that all vocations are a call to the cross. People who come to the monastery live their faith. They keep alive the memory of the Passion. They teach me.
Fr. Dan: Many people have only a hint of how much they are loved by God as revealed in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and of God’s desire to be intimately involved in their lives.
People are fundamentally good and desire to be “right” with God and with other people.
People have generous hearts, “survivors” in the presence of hardships, and by-and-large, trust God.
Fr. William: Sometimes people have been away from the sacrament of reconciliation for nearly fifty years and something they hear on retreat touches them and they return to God.
I have seen people healed physically and witnessed people being reconciled with one another in spite of some difficult situations. Marriages and friendships have been restored.
I have seen people endure tremendous suffering physically, emotionally and spiritually. And yet they take it in stride without any bitterness or anger toward God.
I am always amazed and humbled at how the Spirit moves in people’s lives. The people really teach me about God as I witness God’s movement in their lives.
Fr. John: I have learned never to give up on anyone either in confession or in 12-step spirituality. I have come to know AA and NA victims.
It’s something rare to hear their whole life story with its traumatic (or even prosaic) events that have led them to their addiction. I have been amazed at the working of God’s grace in those with addictions lasting for decades.
Without their lived conversion and sincerity before me, I would have said as many of their friends did, “You’re hopeless.” But then comes the bottom in their story which opens them up to God’s grace and recovery.
Difficult as it may be to apply, never give up hope though tough love may have to intervene.
next page: Preaching and meditating on the Passion
