Listening to God through Pain, page two
The have helped scores of people to navigate life’s stormy seas in the traditional Passionist “front parlor” and retreat house ministry at St. Paul’s Monastery and Retreat House in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Q: In your effort to assist people who come to the Monastery and Retreat House for spiritual counsel for a variety of challenging issues, what basic advice do you find most helpful?
Fr. Dan: Give God more room in the thinking, feeling and doing of your life. Pray that you may come to know and trust God, our Father. Jesus reveals the Father by his life, death and resurrection.
Quiet yourself to listen for God’s signals in your life. Make peace with your flawed humanity and so turn to God for insight and strength.
Father Dan Sullivan, C.P.
Forgive yourself and others as God forgives you. Be grateful — for who you are to God, for this present time of life, for hope in fullness of life with God in the future. Persevere. Stay the course. God is with you.
Fr. William: Often I will suggest a Scripture passage. So many times people want a quick solution. When I invite them to stay the course with God through prayer, I suggest that the greater part of prayer is listening. God already knows what we need. We need to give God the opportunity to respond to our situation by listening to him. Prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue.
When a person lacks control over a situation through no personal fault, I suggest reflecting on how Jesus experienced something similar on the cross, and looking at his reaction.
Sometimes people really beat themselves up, even after they have confessed certain deeds. In those situations, I invite them to ask for the grace to forgive themselves, to accept God’s forgiveness and to also learn what led them to that particular deed.
Q: In your many years of priestly ministry, how have you seen the grace of God at work in the people you have served, and what have you learned?
Fr. Tim: I have seen heroic virtue in so many of the people whom I have listened to and learned from. What a humbling and healing experience it is to witness the tenacious faith of those hit hard over and over again by sickness, death of loved ones, betrayal (especially of a spouse), injustice (especially from the church), unemployment, unrelenting darkness in prayer, loss of faith by loved ones. The list is long.
But people’s faith response to horrific life experiences is more than exemplary. It is a constant reminder that all vocations are a call to the cross. People who come to the monastery live their faith. They keep alive the memory of the Passion. They teach me.
next: People have generous hearts...
