Where has your suffering led you?

Life is filled with great joys and deep suffering. We are given so much, but we lose so much as well. It is easy to overlook our losses. But this often prevents us from healing.

Today, Saint Mother Théodore Guérin, invites us to take a look at the losses that are uniquely ours…and discover how we can use them to become all that God made us to be.

Mother Théodore Guérin was no stranger to suffering. Born in France, the first tragedy of her life happened at the age of fifteen when her father was brutally murdered. Then, soon after she decided to become a religious sister, she came down with an illness that weakened her health for the rest of her life. 

But this was just the beginning. She was assigned to leave France—the country she loved—and to found a new mission in Indiana, educating pioneer children. When she arrived, she found that the people in Indiana were heavily prejudiced against Catholics and religious sisters. Mother Théodore Guérin remained focused on her mission, and with time, she began to see great fruit from all her challenges and losses. She discovered that her struggles gave her a greater compassion for the suffering of the many people she served. And seeing that God was with her every step of the way gave her an incredible faith. 

What fruit have you seen from the losses in your life? When we experience intense loss, we don’t necessarily register it. We focus on surviving. We minimize our pain. We say “I’m fine” when in truth we are hurting. We may be afraid to explore our loss. We may fear we will never be able to recover. 

But here’s the truth: Knowing what has been lost along the way, the price you have paid to become who you are today, is an important part of making peace with your life as it is right now. 

Don’t be afraid to go to God and explore the pain that you’ve experienced. You never know the incredible peace and sense of mission you’ll discover.



Feast Day: October 3

Feast Day Shared By: Thomas de Cantilupe

Patron Saint of: The Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Indiana

Canonized: Oct. 15, 2006 

Canonized By: Pope Benedict XVI