Tag Archives: suffering

Two Written Interviews on Suffering

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Aleteia published an interview with me earlier this week. Here’s an excerpt:

Suffering is part of everyone’s life. It comes in all shades and varieties: illness, disability, pain, loss, depression …
Every news website today is replete with people’s suffering from around the world. Some regions of the world seem to have an unfair burden of suffering.
But most of the suffering that people endure is much less dramatic, and might not even be thought of as suffering: relatively small annoyances that stem from the rudeness of neighbors, the impatience of our own temperament, or simply the ups and downs of daily life.
Catholic spirituality has a lot to offer on not only the reasons for suffering but the ways in which we can fruitfully respond to it. (Link: https://aleteia.org/2024/04/14/if-you-are-suffering-and-you-probably-are-this-book-can-help/ )

And Catholic World Report published another. An excerpt:

   All of us suffer. We live in a fallen world, and suffering is simply a part of life. This suffering can take many forms, and we are all affected differently by it.
But why do we suffer at all? How are we to understand suffering? Is there any purpose to it? And what are we to do with the suffering we face? (Link: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/03/08/interview-with-mark-giszczak/)

Interviews on Wisdom of Solomon and Suffering

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On Thursday, March 21, I appeared on the Kresta in the Afternoon radio show with guest host Marcus Peter. We talked about the Wisdom of Solomon and my commentary on it. You can find the show linked here: https://www.ewtn.com/radio/podcasts/kresta-in-the-afternoon-~NY

Or you can direct download the mp3 here: https://i.listen.ewtn.com/~NY/~NY20240321.mp3

I appear in the second half of the program.

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The same day, I also appeared on Meet the Author with Ken Huck, talking about my book Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know. We had a wide-ranging conversation about the meaning of suffering and how to cope with it as a Catholic Christian.

Interview on Suffering with Church Life Today Podcast

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I was recently interviewed by Leonard DeLorenzo on the Church Life Today Podcast regarding my new book on Suffering.

This is a summary of our conversation from their site:

Suffering is universal. But how do we understand suffering? Does it have meaning? Can it have meaning? And most of all, what is the meaning of suffering in Christian life? Questions like these inform the work of my guest today, Dr. Mark Giszczak, author of the new book Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know. Dr. Giszczak is Professor of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, where he teaches a course on the Theology of Suffering that gave rise to this new book. In our discussion today we will talk about whether and how God suffers, how Christians might suffer well, obstacles to suffering well, and the importance of confronting rather than perpetually running from death.

Here’s the link to the episode: https://churchlifetoday.osvpodcasts.com/2061699/14711091

Announcing My New Book – Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know

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Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know
Sometimes good things come in twos. I am happy to announce my other new book – Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know. This book is part of the series from Augustine Institute and Ignatius Press that seeks to educate Catholics with laser focus on particular topics. “What Every Catholic Should Know” means that the book is designed for regular Catholics, not for some group of specialists. It is my hope that this book helps a lot of people think about, pray about and work through their own experiences of suffering.

Why Write a Book about Suffering?

Everybody suffers. There’s no way around it. Life is wonderful, but it can also be terrible. The more you love, the more it hurts. It would be nice if everything were always perfect and comfortable, but we get sick, have problems, struggle with relationships and careers. Cancer, war, debt, depression–I mean, you don’t have to look too far to find examples of suffering. It’s everywhere. There are a lot of books out there about suffering, but it’s a hard topic to write about, so many of the books are too long or too philosophical or tell too many personal stories without getting to the point. I couldn’t find the book I wanted to read out there, so I decided to write it.

What I am trying to do in this book is get at the heart of the question: Why do we suffer and how can we make sense of it if God is all-loving, all-good and all-powerful? And yet, I wanted to hit the topic from multiple angles so that we can get past the abstract stuff to the more practical strategies for living. My experience has been that a little theological thinking about suffering goes a long way. Once we take up the tradition of Christian biblical theology on this topic, we get some new insights, new perspectives, new ways of coping with the most pressing problems. No, this book won’t take away all of your suffering, but it might help a bit.

Table of Contents

Here’s a sneak preview of the Table of Contents:

  • Chapter 1     Suffering Is an Experience of Evil
  • Chapter 2     Suffering Disorients Us
  • Chapter 3     Suffering Tests Us
  • Chapter 4     Suffering Saves Us
  • Chapter 5     Does God Suffer?
  • Chapter 6     The Many Forms of Suffering
  • Chapter 7     Suffering Is Personal
  • Chapter 8     Coping with Suffering
  • Chapter 9     Redeeming Suffering
  • Chapter 10     Suffering on Purpose
  • Chapter 11     Preparing for Death
  • Chapter 12     Suffering Transforms Us

Books in the What Every Catholic Should Know Series

  • Being Catholic by Suzie Andres
  • The Bible edited by Tim Gray
  • God by Elizabeth Klein
  • Literature by Joseph Pearce
  • Mercy by Fr. Daniel Moloney
  • Philosophy by Peter Kreeft
  • Salvation by Michael Patrick Barber
  • Suffering by Mark Giszczak

Where to Buy

You can find my new book at a couple different sites:

  1. Catholic Market: https://catholic.market/what-every-catholic-should-know/suffering-what-every-catholic-should-know/
  2. Amazon: https://a.co/d/bOfiVzm

When Will the Book be Released?

The release date for Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know is set for January 31, 2024.

I hope you enjoy my new book and I’m looking forward to sharing it with everyone. Suffering is such an important topic–one close to heart for all of us.

Talk on Suffering – CD and mp3

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Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know

I am happy to announce the release of my latest audio talk on CD and mp3. It is entitled “Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know“. It is available from the Augustine Institute for $4.50 for a CD and $3.49 for the mp3 download.

Tonight, June 12, 2023, I will be interviewed about this topic on Catholic Answers Live Radio show. I hope you can tune in to listen live or after the fact.

Suffering is a mystery: an unavoidable reality of human life on earth, which disorients us and tests our souls. It leads us to ask questions about God and his goodness. Though we seek pain relief and comfort, suffering cannot be solved by human effort. Instead, Jesus invites us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). As we accept his call to self-denial, suffering can become redemptive, conforming us to Christ in his salvific suffering. This talk will explain Catholic teaching on the redemptive value of suffering and show how it can go from feeling useless to transforming us to be like God.

This talk is an appetizer for my forthcoming book, Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know (Ignatius Press/Augustine Institute, 2023). Look for the book when it comes out later in 2023.