{"id":12470,"date":"2012-07-09T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T19:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=12470"},"modified":"2015-03-19T13:55:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T20:55:24","slug":"dealing-with-thorns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2012\/07\/09\/dealing-with-thorns\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with thorns"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Second Reading at Mass this weekend we had my favourite passage<\/a> from Paul:<\/p>\n

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh,\u00a0a messenger of Satan,\u00a0to torment me.\u00a0Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.\u00a0But he said to me,\u00a0\u201cMy grace\u00a0is sufficient for you, for my power\u00a0is made perfect in weakness.\u00a0\u201d\u00a0Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ\u2019s power may rest on me.\u00a0That is why, for Christ\u2019s sake, I delight\u00a0in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,\u00a0in persecutions,\u00a0in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.<\/em> – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10<\/span><\/p>\n

The question of suffering is one that everyone<\/span> has to struggle with at some point. For a good treatment on the subject I would invite you to head over to Canterbury Tales<\/a> to read Taylor’s article Why do we suffer? The theological answer of St. Paul<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Nearly every religion seeks to make sense of the problem of pain. If God is both omnibenificent {all-loving} and omnipotent {all-powerful}, why then does He allow us to suffer? <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Eastern traditions such as Buddhism dismiss pain and suffering as \u201cunreal.\u201d This solution is difficult to explain to a child with cancer. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Other religious traditions attempt to accrue \u201cgood karma\u201d in order to ensure that good times will come with a future reincarnated life. For these traditions, the origin of suffering is past sins, even sins committed in previous lives. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Still other religions, such as Islam, seem to place the origin of suffering in the capricious \u201cwill of Allah.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Catholic Faith offers an entirely different account of suffering…<\/em> <\/span>Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Second Reading at Mass this weekend we had my favourite passage from Paul: Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh,\u00a0a messenger of Satan,\u00a0to torment me.\u00a0Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.\u00a0But he said to me,\u00a0\u201cMy grace\u00a0is sufficient for you, for my power\u00a0is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2969,118,993,1298,817],"class_list":["post-12470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-featured","tag-prayer","tag-strength","tag-thorn-in-the-flesh","tag-weakness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12470"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12608,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12470\/revisions\/12608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}