With the Dawn Rejoicing: A Christian Perspective on Pain and Suffering,” by Melannie Svoboda SND. 23 Publications, 2008.
Since pain and suffering are universal experiences, Svoboda addresses her book to all humankind. The pains she writes about may be physical, psychological, or
spiritual and come in a variety of forms. She aims to touch on the many ways suffering arrives and tries to show ways to alleviate the ache.
The author shows how Sacred Scripture
intertwines with real life and remains rooted in Christians with faith. Her meditations deal with some of these topics: the universality of pain, Jesus the healer, how to deal with setbacks, how to befriend the imperfect, biblical images of suffering, and the suffering of the saints. Each chapter begins with a quotation from various sources, followed by a meditation, and an appropriate prayer. The chapters conclude with a question or two for personal reflection and a suggested action for the
day.
Svoboda believes that God is speaking in sorrows and in joys. She knows from personal experience the meaning of a fatal disease as she was recently diagnosed with
polymyositis whereby the autoimmune system begins to attack and destroy healthy cells. In the meantime there in painful swelling, general muscle weakness, and chronic fatigue. There is no promise of a cure. Twenty percent of people who get it die within five years. Others are able to manage the disease with medication. Her diagnosis occasioned the writing of this book on suffering.
(Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this
review.)
