Now I rejoice in my sufferings...Col. 1:24

This is the first of a series of seven meditations examining the Chrsitian meaning of suffering according to the thought of Pope St. John Paul II in his 1984 Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris.

John Paul II was no stranger to suffering. Among the challenges he faced in life include living under Nazi and then Communist occupation in Poland, attending clandestine seminary, losing both his parents and his brother from a young age, watching his friends, including his fellow seminarians, priests, and Jewish friends be murdered during the Second World War, surviving a papal assassination attempt and then spending his last years of life crippled by Parkinson’s disease provides enough qualification to be able to speak with credibility on the subject of suffering.

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