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The "Advantages of Suffering", by Catholic nun
Monica Hellwig and Philip Yancey
- Suffering, the great equalizer, brings us to a point where we may realize
our urgent need for redemption.
- Those who suffer know not only their dependence on God and on healthy
people but also their interdependence with one another.
- Those who suffer rest their security not on things, which often cannot be
enjoyed and may soon be taken away, but rather on people.
- Those who suffer have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no
exaggerated need of privacy. Suffering humbles the proud.
- Those who suffer expect liitle from competition and much from cooperation.
- Suffering helps us distinguish between necessities and luxuries.
- Suffering teaches patience, often a kind of dogged patience born of
acknowledged dependence.
- Suffering teaches the difference between valid fears and exaggerated fears.
- To suffering people the gospel sounds like good news and not like a threat
or scolding. It offers hope and comfort.
- Those who suffer can respond to the call of the gospel with a certain
abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and
are ready for anything."
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