Perhaps we think back to the Garden of Eden and imagine how glorious it would be to live like Adam and Eve in Paradise before the fall, with our souls clear and free and full of light, and in full and immediate control of the appetites of the body. Or we try to imagine our lives without the darkness and difficulties of the suffering we have personally endured? What kind of healthy, happy person “might have been”?
What if the elevation of the human person in Christ is actually BETTER than it would have been if sin and suffering had never entered the human picture? What if you, yourself, are becoming BETTER through the healing of your personal suffering, in Christ, than you would have been if you had never experienced that suffering?
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L | Listen (Receive the Word via audio or video.)
O | Observe (Connect the passage to your life and recent events.)
Is the Holy Spirit inviting you to consider your personal suffering differently? Is it too hard to even imagine that He could elevate you ABOVE what your potential would have been without that suffering?
V | Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.)
Tell Him everything in your heart right now.
Remembering that He loves you and that you are in His presence, talk to God about the particulars of your O – Observe step. You may want to write your reflections in your LOVE the Word® journal. Or, get a free journal page and guide in the right-hand margin.
E | Entrust (May it be done to me according to your word!)
Precious Blood of Jesus, flow through me. Mary, Mother of Divine Love, take the Precious Blood of Jesus to the throne of God, the Father, and offer it in sweet humble adoration, then send it back flowing by the Holy Spirit as a healing of body, mind, heart, and soul. Grant me complete and total healing as I cooperate with you, Lord Jesus, in the healing of my soul and body as you direct. Amen. +
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What We Discussed | Show Notes
Overview:
Minutes 00:12:00 – Suffering, its meaning and purpose as personal and apostolic purification in John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris
Minutes 12:01-24:00 – Creation, angels, the Garden and sinlessness, the soul’s full, immediate control of the body
Minutes 24:01-36:00 – The disorder of soul and body at the Fall, and loss of control of the body; restoration and elevation in Christ and proper hierarchy of the human person
Minutes 36:01-48:00 – O happy fault!, “grace builds on nature,” “where sin abounds, grace superabounds,” and the implications