Suffering with a Purpose: How to Turn Failures Into Victories and Pain Into Joy

by Hubert Van Zeller

The greatest test of your faith won't come from routine encounters in your work, family or social life. Nor will it come from extraordinary challenges or temptations. No, your greatest test will be whether you will trust God when you suffer, or whether you will, in the words of Job's wife, curse God and die. In Suffering with a Purpose , Rev. Hubert van Zeller helps you prepare now for all your sufferings in life by enabling you to see them with the eyes of the Spirit. Van Zeller, the wise author of Holiness for Housewives, maintains that you can understand the mystery of suffering only by means of the Passion of Christ. Through explorations of the Passion narrative, he uncovers a great deal to help you through the dark times, sharpening your vision of life's meaning and showing you how to accept your crosses with love. Above all, van Zeller shows you that suffering has a purpose. With help from this insightful book, you'll learn how to resist discouragement, see your crosses for what they are, and bear them with perseverance. In these pages you will

144 pages, Paperback

Published May 16, 2019

About the author

Dom Hubert van Zeller lived a life of spiritual adventure and holy renunciation. He was born in Egypt when that nation was a British protectorate, and entered the Benedictine novitiate at age nineteen. His soul thirsted for an austere way of life; at one point he even left the Benedictines to enter a strict Carthusian monastery. However, he soon returned to the Benedictines. A talented sculptor as well as a writer, his artworks adorn churches in Britain and the United States. He was a friend of the great Catholic writers Msgr. Ronald Knox and Evelyn Waugh, and is the author of Holiness: A Guide for Beginners, Holiness for Housewives, and Spirit of Penance, Path to God.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was our parish's Lenten book read and a book about suffering, framed around the Stations of the Cross, really felt appropriate for this season. Hubert Van Zeller wrote this in the early 1960s and I'll admit that the prose here made it hard for me to connect. It was striking to read this at the same time as When Breath Becomes Air another book about suffering (and faith) that was written so differently.

That said, there were a few sections and passages that really resonated with me. The section on bearing our crosses with perseverance (Jesus is nailed to the cross in the Stations) felt so thoroughly modern despite being written over half a century ago. Van Zeller diagnoses a culture of experimentalism where we don't want to persevere - we keep our options open and march from one thing to another when it gets hard, whether its a job, a marriage or relationship, or even entertainments as simple as books or performances. That section felt like it could've been written yesterday.

Overall this was a good read for Lent.

[Kristine Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was extremely helpful in making sense of my own suffering.