Quick Quotes“Those who believe their suffering has been valuable love more readily than those who see no meaning in their pain. Suffering does not necessarily imply love, but love implies suffering.”
― Andrew Solomon
Beware The CheeseWhen you need a #yellow #sketch depicting #suffering.
Suffering Yellow
Carmelite QuotesQuote of the day, 2 June: Père Jacques de Jésus
Don’t forget to pray with the weight of your worries. Suffering is such a powerful prayer! Let your trial detach you from the earth, and, freed, rest in God without trouble or worry. Say over and over to God: “Fiat voluntas tua!”
Servant of God Père Jacques de Jésus
Letter to a friend, 29 September 1936
The Servant of God Jacques de Jésus, O.C.D., who was a professed friar of the Province of Paris-Avon, an ordained priest, and the headmaster of the Discalced Carmelite friars’ boys’ preparatory school at Avon, the Petit Collège Sainte-Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jésus, died on this date, 2 June 1945 in St. Elizabeth Hospital in Linz, Austria following 70 weeks in Nazi prison camps.
Père Jacques was weakened by a year of hard labor and harsh conditions at Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps in Austria; when the Allied Forces liberated the camps on 5 May 1945, he summoned the strength to help restore order and organize relief efforts. But 15 days later the Allied camp commanders transferred him to St. Elizabeth Hospital so that he could be close to the community of the Discalced Carmelite friars at Linz. It was there that he succumbed to illness and exhaustion at 45 years of age.
The mortal remains of Père Jacques lie in state before his funeral in Linz, AustriaThe diocesan process of his cause of beatification was opened in 1990. The English-language website for his cause includes the Prayer for Beatification and the address where you can send reports of favors received.
The World Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem has a featured story dedicated to Père Jacques. It includes a description of his heroic acts to shelter Jewish students at the preparatory school, for which he was arrested. It also quotes the testimony of witnesses to his arrest and imprisonment and provides links to read full accounts of witnesses’ testimonies. On 17 January 1985 Yad Vashem recognized Père Jacques as Righteous Among the Nations. You can find an entire page devoted to Père Jacques (Lucien Bunel), which includes his featured story, testimonies, and photos.
Listen to the Silence – A Retreat with Père Jacques, is available for purchase from the publisher, ICS Publications.
Province de Paris des Carmes Déchaux (2024) ‘Carême 2024 – Semaine 5 : Apprendre l’obéissance’, Retraites spirituelles en ligne du Carmel, 13 March. Available at: https://retraites.carmes-paris.org/careme-2024/careme-2024-semaine-5-apprendre-lobeissance/ (Accessed: 31 May 2026).
Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: A student at the Petit Collège in Avon visits Père Jacques de Jésus in the headmaster’s office. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (by kind permission).
#fiat #LucienBunel #PèreJacquesDeJésus #ServantOfGod #suffering
NewsletterTFTHE PUZZLE OF SUFFERING AND THE NON-EXISTENCE OF THE DIVINE
Does the existence of pain and suffering prove there is no God? Learn how modern philosophers debate the problem of evil and its impact on belief systems.
#philosophy, #atheism, #theology, #suffering, #logic
https://newsletter.tf/suffering-and-the-non-existence-of-god/
Philosophers are discussing if world suffering makes a creator impossible. This is a 2,000-year-old debate that continues to influence modern logic today.
#philosophy, #atheism, #theology, #suffering, #logic
https://newsletter.tf/suffering-and-the-non-existence-of-god/
Alexandra Beekers 🏳️🌈🌍“Even if we don’t know what the #world should look like, this version of the world can’t be it.
Because it is fundamentally conditioned on the #suffering of the most #vulnerable people among us.”
#capitalism #colonialism #imperialism #subjugation #technofascism
#LaraSheehi
Because it is fundamentally conditioned on the #suffering of the most #vulnerable people among us.”
#capitalism #colonialism #imperialism #subjugation #technofascism
#LaraSheehi
Coach Sankhavaram ®Joy.
Suffering.
Fun.
Suffering.
Delight in the power of doing the work.
let's get down to clown!
29 May: Blessed Elia of St. Clement Fracasso
May 29
BLESSED ELIA OF SAINT CLEMENT FRACASSO
Virgin
Optional Memorial
Blessed Elia of St. Clement was born in Bari, 17th January 1901, to deeply Christian parents. At her baptism, she was given the name Theodora, gift of God. In the brief course of her life on earth, she lived up to her name. On 8th April 1920 (then Feast of St. Albert, author of the Carmelite Rule), she entered the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari. She received the habit on 24th November of the same year, the feast of St John of the Cross. On 8th December 1924, she wrote in her own blood her act of total and definitive offering to the Lord with the vow to embrace the “most perfect”. She died on Christmas day 1927. On 19th December 2005, Pope Benedict XVI signed the Decree of Beatification. She was proclaimed Blessed in Bari Cathedral on 18th March 2006.
From the Common of Virgins
Office of Readings
Second Reading
From the Writings of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement
(Ed. O.C.D. 2001: pp. 282, 295, 322)
The desire to lose herself in God and her apostolic zeal
O sweet hiddenness, I love to pass my days in your shadow and to consume thus my existence, for love of my sweet Lord. At times, thinking of those eternal rewards, so great compared to the slight sacrifices of this life, my soul remains in wonder, and seized by an ardent longing, it throws itself on God, exclaiming: “Oh my good Jesus, I want to reach my goal, the gates of salvation, no matter what the cost. Do not deny me anything; give me suffering. May this be the most intimate martyrdom of my poor heart, hidden from every human glance: a rugged cross is what I ask of you. I want to pass my days here below hanging from this cross.”
When we suffer with Jesus, the suffering is delightful; I long to suffer with all my heart, beyond this I no longer want anything.
My Delight, who could ever separate me from You? Who could be capable of breaking these strong chains that keep my heart attached to yours? Perhaps the abandonment of creatures? It is precisely this that unites the soul to its Creator. Perhaps tribulations, suffering, crosses? It is in these thorns that the canticle of the soul that loves you is freest and lightest. Perhaps death? But this will be nothing other than the beginning of true happiness for the soul. Nothing, nothing can separate this soul from You, not even for a brief moment. It was created for You and is lost if it does not abandon itself to You.
My life is love: this sweet nectar surrounds me, this merciful love penetrates me, purifies me, renews me, and I feel it consuming me. The cry of my heart is: “Love of my God, my soul searches for You alone. My soul, suffer and be quiet; love and hope; offer yourself but hide your suffering behind a smile, and always move on. I want to spend my life in deep silence, in the depths of my heart, in order to listen to the gentle voice of my sweet Jesus.
“Souls, I will search for a way to cast you into the sea of Merciful Love: souls of sinners, but above all souls of priests and religious. To this end, my existence is slowly disappearing, consumed like the oil of a lamp that watches near the Tabernacle.”
I sense the vastness of my soul, its infinite greatness that the immensity of this world cannot contain: it was created to lose itself in You, my God, because you alone are great, infinite and thus You alone can make it completely happy.
RESPONSORY
R/. An unmarried woman, like a young girl, can devote herself to the Lord’s affairs. * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).
V/. God is the strength of her heart, he is hers forever: * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).
Morning Prayer
Canticle of Zechariah
Ant. O Lord, how gentle is your love! Lost in your embrace I shall be blessed forever (alleluia).
Prayer
O Lord,
who were pleased to accept the self-offering
of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement, virgin;
grant through her intercession,
that, sustained by the Eucharist
we may be able faithfully to do your will.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you,
and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.
Evening Prayer
Canticle of Mary
Ant. Your love, O Lord, is like a fire consuming me in the ardent furnace of your Heart (alleluia).
Blessed Elia of St. Clement (Teodora Fracasso, 1901-1927)Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.
#Bari #blessed #BlessedEliaOfStClement #GodAlone #infiniteBeing #Liturgy #LiturgyOfTheHours #love #loveAlone #loveForJesus #loveForTheLord #loveIsLoss #loveOfGod #loveWithoutLimits #martyrdom #mercifulLove #optionalMemorial #perfection #suffer #suffering #TeodoraFracasso #trueLove #virgin
“When you stop buying what you don’t need to impress people you don’t like, the system loses its power over you.
When you stop consuming content that makes you feel worse about yourself, the attention economy loses its grip. When you stop medicating spiritual problems with material solutions, the cycle breaks.”
Why your #suffering is someone elses #businessmodel
#capitalism #economy #society
https://medium.com/@fatih.akkaya/why-your-suffering-is-someone-elses-business-model-49eab90bdced
Pope Leo’s In Magnifica Humanitas names the precise dangers of #AI: job displacement, surveillance infrastructure, and decision systems that assign consequences without #accountability.
His case for hope runs a paragraph.
The tech is “a gift that can reduce suffering and open new doors,” provided it serves human values rather than corporate #power.
He doesn’t name a single door.
Not one form the reduction in #suffering might take.
