Fr. Chris Interviews his mom, Joni J. Seith on her New Book, Pain of Grace: Living and Suffering with Dignity. Hope you enjoy it.

Just as an FYI, we tweaked the cover of Pain of Grace: Living and Suffering with Dignity because we were presented with an awesome cover design by Bruce Nelson. It is only the cover of the book that has been changed. All the good stuff inside remains the same. If you received the book with the original cover, who knows perhaps in 50 years it will be worth something more as a first addition. But I think that only happens after selling a million copies. So, we can only hope. Seriously, if the book helps just one person, I will be beyond thrilled!

Bruce Nelson will also be giving this Pain of Grace Blog a much needed facelift. So, stay tuned. Good things are around the corner. In the meantime, enjoy the book, leave a comment on Amazon’s Pain of Grace: Living and Suffering with Dignity page, subscribe and leave a message on my Youtube Channel, if you feel called to do so. Ding-a-ling-a-ling – I’m calling you to do so. Lol, I’m just joking.

And for you reading enjoyment, here is the Preface of Pain of Grace: Living and Suffering with Dignity to wet your whistle…

Preface

            Life stinks. Let’s face it, sometimes it really does, and other times, it’s just not fair. Even some of the greatest saints have had this same thought. As the story goes, when St. Teresa of Avila was looking up from the road, after falling to the ground off the back of her carriage, she said to Jesus, “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few.”  She knew. And we do too. Sometimes life stinks and it’s really hard. Other times, it’s not that bad, and we can handle the minor challenges in our life, crosses if you will. At times things seem to be going great and sometimes, well, they just stink.

            In this book, I will be sharing my story with you, both the “pungent” and the “fragrant” life events. And as my husband always reminds me, “with Joni, nothing’s boring.” So proceed with caution, hold onto your hat, and enjoy the ride. In a weird sort of way, my journey has been many lessons of how two seemingly opposite statements, that life stinks and that God is always good, can both be true at the same time. In a blink of an eye, I’ve gone from a total nosedive of despair to praising the God of all goodness, and then down and up again, getting whiplash through this unpredictable ride called life.

            And I mean whiplash. Rolling over, asleep in bed and dislocating vertebrae in my neck, sneezing and popping out my jaw, sitting up in bed and breaking my leg, and the latest and most humiliating, dislocating and twisting two ribs while trying to tie a bow on a gift bag.  For the past twenty-eight years, this pain has dictated every decision and action in my life. It’s hard, really hard.  When it first began I wondered, if God is a perfect and loving Father, who gives only good gifts to those who ask him (Matt. 7:11), what on earth was he thinking when he “knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Ps.139:13)? Did he use moth-eaten yarn, drop a few stitches or knit when he should have pearled? Obviously, I thought, something went terribly wrong when he created me!

            After many years and a slow learning process, I’ve come to see that the Lord has made me with a body that I can pray with, and that I can unite to my Crucified Lord.  And this is where I can find hope and joy.  Although my journey is unique to me, I’d venture to guess that you will be able to see yourself throughout many of these pages too.  One time, when going to my spiritual director for consolation in the midst of a severe trail, he shrugged his shoulders, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, “It’s always something.”  Then he walked away. “What?” I thought. I came to him to find words that would comfort me, and this is what he had to say!  Was it time to find a new spiritual director?  In the many years that followed with my own incurable progressive illness, and the many ills of those I love, I came to see the wisdom in my spiritual director’s simple quip. You know, it is always something. Throughout our lives these “somethings” may be spread out. While other times they come all at once, crashing down like a meteor plummeting to earth leaving indelible marks on our hearts, minds, souls, and even our bodies.

It’s my desire, through telling my story on these pages, that you and I can explore with greater clarity and hope, the crosses in our lives. I pray that through the Holy Bible, as well as St. John Paul II’s words in his Letter on Human Suffering, and even in the humble telling of my own journey, the words on these pages somehow, through the grace of God, bring healing and understanding as they resonate in your soul as they still do in mine. 

Although the details of our stories are very different, I’m confident that there are paths where our stories cross or even run parallel. Beginning this journey with you doesn’t require any travel, for this adventure begins in our own back yard where once the stench of weeds, oppressively sudoriferous, can grow to exude the aroma of God’s love.

Heavenly Father, we ask You to bless our senses, that we may find our eyes of faith which allow us to see Your Truth in the light of Your Holy Spirit. We pray also, that with our restored vision, we can gaze clearly through the portal of Your Son’s Most Sacred Heart, pierced for our sake. We ask that You turn our gaze towards Jesus, and that He will show us, how even in our crosses, our life is fragranced with love, peace, and His Life within us – His grace. Lastly Father, we pray that through and with Your grace, our utterances that “life stinks” be transformed into a constant cry of joy as we catch the fragrance of sanctity growing within us.

When sometimes life seems unbearably painful, it helps me to remember that Jesus promised He’d always be there with us (Mt. 28:20) and to remember that when carrying our cross, it becomes lighter and less painful when yoked to Him (Mt. 11: 28-30). Let’s hold on to his promises and ask Him to guide us through our own Pain of Grace.