Ignatius Press Podcast Interview on Suffering
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Tag Archives: suffering
Latest interview on Suffering
Today, I appeared on LA Catholic Mornings talking about my new book, Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know. Check it out (my segment begins at timestamp 43:45):
Or you can watch the studio video here:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=369562062528401
Announcing My New Book – 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:
- Catholic Market: https://catholic.market/what-every-catholic-should-know/suffering-what-every-catholic-should-know/
- 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
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.
St. Teresa and Life as an “Inconvenient Hotel”
You might have read this quotation at some point:
In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth, a life full of the most atrocious tortures on earth, will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.
This quote is often attributed to Mother Teresa, but elsewhere it is attributed to St. Teresa of Avila. I looked high and low for a source. I found my way to p. 47 in Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Faith. But there, the quote is actually in the mouth of the famous Catholic author, Peter Kreeft citing “St. Teresa.” Kreeft himself alludes to the quotation on p. 139 in his book, Making Sense Out of Suffering, but he does not actually quote it. So where does that leave us?
An Alternate Version
I found an alternate version of the quotation that goes like this:
From heaven even the most miserable life will look like one bad night at an inconvenient hotel.
That one is attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, but these two quotes must have a common lineage, right?
Finding the Source of the Quotation
I think I finally tracked the thread of the quote down to chapter 40 of The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila, where she is comparing life in hell to life on earth as two alternate hotels. I will quote the larger context here:
What will become of the poor soul that, after being freed from the sufferings and trials of death, falls immediately into these hands? What terrible rest it receives! How mangled as it goes to hell! What a multitude of different kinds of serpents! What a terrifying place! What a wretched inn! If it is hard for a self-indulgent person (for such are the ones who will be more likely to go there) to spend one night in a bad inn, what do you think that sad soul will feel at being in this kind of inn forever, without end?
Let us not desire delights, daughters; we are well-off here; the bad inn lasts for only a night. Let us praise God; let us force ourselves to do penance in this life. How sweet will be the death of one who has done penance for all his sins, of one who won’t have to go to purgatory! Even from here below you can begin to enjoy glory! You will find no fear within yourself but complete peace.
(Source: Teresa of Ávila, The Way of Perfection, Meditations on the Song of Songs, and The Interior Castle, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, vol. 2 of The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila [Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 2017], 195.)
So there it is, I think. Life on earth is like a bad night at a bad inn. Mother Teresa loved St. Teresa of Avila, so it is very possible that she recycled the quotation and expanded it, but I have not found any evidence of it in print yet. If you do, let me know in the comments. If I do, I guess I’ll have to post a follow-up.