Get past your mental, emotional and physical stress and anguish easier if you know what to do with it. You can even feel much better afterwards. In the first part of this post I gave you the basics on what one can do.
Continuing on, here's what I learned: there's more to giving God our enduring torments. I found out about it last year. You have also learned the summary if you already read Part 1: "Oh the Pain, the Agony..." Don't Waste It!
Actually I partly talked about this topic in another post months ago: Read here. But Part 1 of this 2nd post gives you more info so read that first if you haven't yet. You will understand the subject better if you do so before reading further below. 😉
Are you ready to learn more? 😆 Now let's dive deeper!
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💡 More Details on Offering Our Suffering to God (Offer It Up)
I know this may still be hard to understand, especially if you've never heard of it before.
Let's put it this way...
Suffering is like going to the gym to get a perfect body, or saving our hard-earned money to go on a cruise. In the end we should achieve our goal. And for most of the religious, our goal is to go to Heaven. To get there we must be sanctified first. One way to achieve that is by offering it up.
Think of your parents, they became selfless in order to help you grow. Your mother would do the laundry, cook meals, clean the house and take care of you. Your father works hard to provide for the family, to have money to eat and spend for your clothes, shoes, gadgets. The roles can alternate, reverse or a single parent will do all that (!!!).
IMAGINE THE MANY PAINS and SUFFERING, the SACRIFICES OF OUR PARENTS just BECAUSE THEY LOVE and CARE FOR US. Yes they do it for you the child, because they ought to. That doesn't mean it's easy. Good parents will cry too and feel burdened or wracked by guilt. If they simply cast their burdens upon God then the weight can be lifted. Should they offer it to the Lord for the sake of others, that's love.
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Now think of yourself beside your already aging parents and grandparents (or other relatives and even your siblings). They're sick, weak and need assistance so we care for them. We work harder to earn more money just to help them. That's love and sacrifice on our part, enduring the hardships of taking care of sick or old people. Oh what we would do if we could, just to ease their pain and suffering, right?
I know taking care of the sick and/or dying is hard to do. There are people who can't do it and run away from such responsibilities. Not everyone will want to experience hardships so kudos to those who have done this and are still doing it!
Now let's dive into offering all those miseries / agonies to God. If we are already finding it too hard to go on for ourselves, our family or relatives, when we want to give up because it's too hard to do anything, offer it up to God for the sake of others!
If you want to be cleansed, sanctified or made holy even just a little bit, this is one way to go. Store up some riches or treasures in heaven!
No need to offer lambs or goats like in the Old Testament, your hardships is enough, just like Jesus'. You can be in agony and hate everything forever until you die or offer your suffering for the sake of others and grow in virtue. Your choice.
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On another aspect, Filipinos who have a devotion to the Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno (a.k.a the Black Nazarene) can definitely relate to what I'm saying.
Joining the almost 4.3 mile Traslacion (procession) is like imitating and accompanying Jesus' journey to Calvary where He experienced profound difficulties and died for our sins. It is the people's version of offering their hardships to God.
Yes, the difference is, their suffering is self-imposed. It is a form of mortification/self-flagellation. And yet they feel happy to do it every year. Why? Because miracles can happen! 😱 Just imagine then what your offering of involuntary sufferings to the Lord can do for others.
Going back to uncontrollable hardships... Another example: In case you're brokenhearted, God will take your sorrow away if you offer it to Him. Again, don't just give Him your burdens, offer it up for the salvation of your own soul and even those in purgatory.
Bottomline: Don't waste your painful experiences! Help save other people from eternal damnation. This penance, an act of reparation, is the key.
BUT WHAT IS THE EXACT PROCESS?
Okay I hear you, maybe you don't want to freestyle and say/do things on your own. So here's what you can do. The first step is to do the sign of the cross, then start praying.
A. Simple daily prayers.
Do a short & easy prayer in the morning, use the Daily Offering prayer (1844) by Fr. François-Xavier Gautrelet or the Morning offering by St. Therese of Lisieux.
B. Say a mental prayer whenever you're struggling, angry, irritated, under stress, feeling pain, etc.
Whenever we are experiencing hardships, tell God that you are offering it all to Him in reparation for the things I mentioned in Part 1 of this post. Or offer it in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world for your own intention/s.
You can use these words given by Mama Mary to the children of Fatima:
Oh my Jesus, I offer this for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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C. Offer it as part of your mass intention.
The mass is the strongest form of prayer to God. When you go to church, attend mass with the intention of offering your pain/suffering for those I listed in Part 1, together with Jesus at the altar.
D. Extra steps
- Go to confession weekly, monthly or as often as possible to be in a constant state of grace. That's the best thing to do to fight temptations.
- Acceptance of the cause of or reasons for your pain/anguish is also the key to making the best offering. Not easy but it's plus points to God if we can!
Turning our suffering into an offering for the sake of other people is a noble thing to do. It shows our love for humanity. The Lord delights in such actions. Just read St. Faustina's diary. There are many saints who did the same, like Padre Pio. This is why sanctified people experienced stigmata, among other things.
The saints with "victim souls" are what I consider as the "extreme" side of offering it up. Still what they go through may not even be 1/8 of what Jesus Christ went through. But it can be enough for God.
However small our offering may be, God appreciates such actions especially when done out of love. On a side note, here's the "secret" cherry on top: partial indulgence.
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💪 So, Do You Think You Can Do It?
This is the challenge. Are you someone who can do this too? Can you stop wasting your misery or anguish in life even at least once or twice a month?
Doing penance wholeheartedly for others instead of being bitter about our ongoing misery is so much better. We can offer our sorrows to God, pray that we endure everything and then say it is for the sake of other people and those in purgatory. There is already too much suffering in this world so why let it all go to waste for nothing?
Helping unfortunate strangers or even friends and family can always make us feel good, right? For sure you've experienced that at least once in your life. So doing it in a spiritual way should be no different. Praying this way is something we can all do anytime. Won't even take 5 minutes!
Again, doing this for whoever needs it the most and taking up our crosses means showing love for God and our neighbors (or humanity). With this we can start storing up treasures in heaven!
Yes, sometimes offering it up will be easy, other times it can be real hard. I say, let's take our time! If we turn this prayer practice into a habit it won't be too hard anymore.
Mama Mary pray for us. 🙏
P. S. In case you don't want or care to offer your sufferings for others, there are definitely other things one can do. I'll write another post about that because this is getting quite long again. Hehe.
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