Praying Through Pain - by Barbara Lee (Paperback)

About the Book

A Scripture-based personal guide to praying through suffering and loss.

Book Synopsis

2023 Illumination Book Awards Silver Medalist, Illness/Death/Dying
2023 Catholic Media Association Book Awards, First Place, Books About Prayer
2023 Catholic Media Association Book Awards, Honorable Mention, Grief and Bereavement

IT'S DIFFICULT TO PRAY DURING times of suffering. Words simply may not come. You may feel angry or confused, and that can make it tough to turn to God. Well-meaning friends or family may offer suggestions like "Just be patient" or "Offer it up," which only leave you feeling worse.

In Praying through Pain, award-winning author and spiritual director Barbara Lee offers a simple and practical way of communicating with God in difficult times, including

• Relevant and relatable Scripture stories of pain
• Principles of Ignatian spirituality and how to use them effectively
• Mini-prayers, words, and phrases that you can use when everything else is too difficult

Read this book any way that suits your personal journey. Dip into a chapter that speaks to the emotions you're feeling today. Sit with a passage of Scripture until it sinks deep inside your heart. Talk to God about what you're feeling. Then listen for the voice of God.

And know that you are not alone.

Review Quotes

In this insightful manual, spiritual director Lee (Answering God's Call) shares guidance for communing with God during adversity. Drawing on Ignatian spirituality, which emphasizes bringing one's true feelings to god, Lee contends that "praying through pain very often calls for a new approach" to worship. In each brief chapter, she focuses on one emotion or state of being, offering meditations on its spiritual relevance, plus applicable prayers and scripture. In "Impatience," a passage from Ecclesiastes reminds readers that "there is an appointed time for everything, /And a time for every affair under the heavens." In "Helplessness," Lee advises that "it is when we are most helpless that we realize our only help is in God," offering a psalm that "seems to have been intended as a blessing for someone in danger." Elsewhere, she devotes chapters to "Anger," "Trauma," and more, each concluding with questions that underline the chapter's lessons ("How can you grow closer to God in times of isolation?"). Lee confronts pain with compassion, jettisoning platitudes for practical, text-based advice that readers can tailor to their own challenges, and striking a careful tone that neither minimizes readers' adversity nor wallows in it. This will comfort Christians seeking new prayer practices in painful moments. (Dec.) - Publisher's Weekly

About the Author

Barbara Lee is a spiritual director with a ministry to the aging. She is a retired attorney, a former U.S. magistrate judge, and a long-serving member of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps. She is the author of God Isn't Finished with Me Yet and Answering God's Call.