Some may focus their prayer solely on ending abortion or stopping war. Yet in the quiet space of another prayer, is there room to honor the single parent who rises each day for their child, the man or woman without children who has poured their life into a career they believed in, or the person who has walked a path different from what their family and society expected?
The crosses people carry are rarely the ones we imagine. They are the silent ache of a parent whose child has wandered far from home, the loneliness of a grandparent who feels forgotten, the adult child who carries pain from a past full of doubt, the fragile bonds of families holding on by only a thread.
The steadfast, unconditional love of God revealed in the Passion of Jesus, even as we hold onto the promise of the hope and peace still unfolding – this is suffering love.
When we can look upon those who are not like us, recognize their wounds, and draw them close with a love that does not measure or judge, perhaps then we touch the suffering love we are called to embody. No more and no less.
“The Passion of Jesus is a sea of sorrows, but it is also an ocean of love.”
St. Paul of the Cross
What a beautiful reflection! Thank you for bringing this forth.