Comfort from Trial

A quote from Catherine:

The comfort soon comes after a well-received trial.

I was reading a novel this week called Cloud Nine. In it, several stories intersected into the life of one woman, Sarah who was dying. It was amazing to see how her words and her simple joy brought hope and love and even laughter to those who were mostly full of fear, anger, sorrow and heartbreak. A man who lost his son to drowning even as he was trying to save him, a young girl whose parents had divorced, her own son who felt the call to leave her and go back to the island where his grandfather lived to seek his roots all felt her deep serenity despite her own struggles with illness and her respite from it.

Of course it is a tear jerker story, but there is something so full of blessing to have come across such a character. No less for us who know Catherine McAuley. Her story, filled with faith, with struggle, and pain has to it a wonderful ending, the growth of the women who have known her, the growth of the Congregation.

I wonder sometimes how my words and life bring comfort to those who are having trials. In the novel, it wasn't the words of comfort as much as it was how life was lived and people were acknowledged that made a difference. May I make a difference in someone life today by the way I live my life...