Real Suffering: Finding Hope & Healing in the Trials of Life

Why do we suffer so much in this life? What is the purpose and meaning of our trials? How can we find hope and healing amidst our sorrow? Dr. Bob Schuchts, Founder and President of the JohnPaul II Healing Center, seeks to answer these difficult questions in a new 4-part series by Saint Benedict Press: Real Suffering: Finding Hope and Healing in the Trials of Life. Suffering is something that touches everyone from the poor to the powerful. It can lead to doubts about God’s love, and can leave hearts unhappy for a lifetime. But it doesn’t have to be this way. What if suffering was the catalyst to our union with Christ? Drawing on decades of experience as a Marriage and Family Therapist, as well as on his own personal crosses, Dr. Schuchts expertly and compassionately examines the complex nature of human suffering. Dissecting the three basic categories of human trial—physical pain, emotional loss, and spiritual guilt—he shows the underlying purpose of our sorrows and helps us to see how, if we bear our crosses with faith, they can be a means for us to draw closer to God. In Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection, we have the key to discovering redemption in our suffering. Dr. Schuchts explores this through the trials of Jesus, Mary, and Peter: Christ, in his physical agony on the cross, Mary, in the wrenching agony of losing her child, and Peter, in the shame he felt at denying Jesus. Through these prototypes of pain, loss and guilt, we see every facet of human suffering and can learn how to find hope and healing by applying them to our own stories. Join Dr. Schuchts as he looks at human suffering through the lens of Church teaching and these three prototypes. Accompanying his talks are powerful documentary profiles on ordinary Christians bearing tremendous crosses in their everyday lives. Come see the witness of these faith-filled people, and discover how it is possible to transform even the most bitter suffering into joyful participation in Christ’s ultimate example of redemptive suffering.

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