#joyinsuffering

🌷The joy of the Lord is my strength!!🌷

‪Bible Study on Philippians.

2 Corinthians 4:6-18. ‬

‪Learning joy in suffering. ‬

I have been encouraged by our dear pastoral care coordinator to take some time out for/by myself. So here I am trying to have a proper day off - complete with a cuppa, laptop, journal, bible and a special appearance by our sisterhood’s nail polish stash. It has been a while since I posted anything! We have been at the University of Queensland for six weeks now and have officially kicked off our ministry at UQ - faith studies, discipling, accompanying students, trying to increase the Catholic identity on campus.  Over the last 3 months I have become more self-aware of myself - my habits, strengths, weaknesses. I have also found that I am also more attune to Jesus speaking to my life. Our supervisor visit a couple of weeks ago was so much fun, but was also very confronting - one of the roughest things as a sanguine-phlegmatic (in my case anyway) is external parties pointing out areas of improvement - hearing that you could improve, that you could do better & be better as a team leader, sister, campus minister.  In my personal attempts to take on this challenge to be better, more, great - the clogs in my head have perhaps been working a little too hard. Headaches, nausea, tense shoulders, jaw clenching, bizarre dreams.. which then culminated into a casual panic attack last week (which was a fairly terrifying experience in itself.) And so, over the last couple of weeks I have found myself on this major spiritual journey - painful and uncomfortable - but a time of real refinement. I have been getting a real sense of being pushed outside of my comfort zone by Jesus; of being challenged to go beyond myself and what I have come to believe are my limits. This has put a bit of a weight on my heart, but as a good friend of mine often reminds me, “when you do something outside of your comfort zone, your comfort zone gets bigger.”  Through this, I’ve felt the importance in asking the big guy upstairs for the grace to find joy in the suffering, especially as I read St Therese of Lisieux’s autobiography:

One cannot attain the end without adopting the means, and as Our Lord made me understand that it was by the Cross He would give me souls, the more crosses I met with, the stronger grew my attraction to suffering.

The lives and intercession of the Church’s saints has also been an inspiration lately. Just the concept that the Catholic Church is beyond that on earth.. that we have a whole army praying with us and for us in Heaven - is that not such a comforting thought!? One big thing I have found helpful (and am working on being better at) is being still and allowing myself time alone to reflect and process the kazillion things running through my mind. I ask whoever might be reading this to please pray for me and my team as we continue our mission to sow seeds all over campus!