Make the Sign of the Cross

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on the inhabitants of a country in shadow dark as death light has blazed forth." (Isaiah, 9:1)

Prayer: 

Evening prayer for those who are suffering

Lord Jesus, 

So many dramas afflict us,

I pray to you tonight for all the people who are suffering.

I pray to you for the parents who have lost a child,

For all the people who are crying for a loved one, 

For the fragile and sensitive people who suffer from the indifference or the cruelty of our society.

I pray to you for all the people who feel lost,

Those who do not know where to go anymore,

Those who bury themselves in the dark,

Those who wander aimlessly in our streets,

Those who suffer in their body,

Those who suffer in their soul,

Those who feel abandoned by all, 

Those who know nothing but solitude.

I pray to you Lord

For all those who do not speak,

Those who suffer in silence, 

Those whose words do not come out,

Those who confide in You.

And all those who do not know You.

Lord, I pray to you tonight pour all the people who are crying,

And for those whose tears are not flowing,

Lighten their pain, 

Appease their heart,

Bring them Peace and Consolation, 

Love and Light.

Amen

Author unknown

Bonus

God of Love, what are you doing against the suffering of men?

God has no collusion with suffering and evil. He calls us to fight them or, faced with the ineluctable, to find, with His help and following the example of Christ, the way of overcome it fruitfully. 

1. Suffering is part of the human condition. To have a world where there would be no evil, no suffering, God would have to intervene at every moment. There would be no liberty, no responsibility. We would not be able to grow, nor to love. How dull! 

2. God wanted to take the risk of creating man “in His own image”, which is free and capable of love. Men are responsible for the greatest pain, but they are also capable of sublime things. At the Last Judgement, the good seed will be definitively separated from the tares. 

3. Suffering lies in the path of each of us. It leads us to two meeting points: a) the combat against evil and its causes (whenever it is possible); b) the search for a transfiguration of this suffering (when it is ineluctable).

4. Sufferings can become a fertile soil and nurture the growth of the highest values of humanity, not only among saints.

5. This was also the way of Christ. For one, he never ceased to cure the blind, the dumb, the deaf, the paralysed, the possessed. For another, he was not spared. He was even to the worst: torture. In Paul Claudel's words, “God has not come to eliminate suffering; He has not even come to explain it. He has come to fill it with His Presence.”

6. We are all called, in the example of Christ, to the gift of ourselves in the combat against evil which crushes our brothers and to accept and overcome, with the help of God, the difficulties and the ineluctable pain that we face throughout our life. 

-- Testimony shared by Father Stan Rougier