Novenas - Totus2us

Day 2, Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes. Quote from John Paul II's apostolic letter on the salvific meaning of suffering, Salvifici Doloris: "Thus the reality of suffering prompts the question about the essence of evil: what is evil? This question, in a certain sense, seems inseparable from the theme of suffering. The Christian response to it is different from that given by certain cultural and religious traditions which hold that existence is an evil from which we must be liberated. Christianity proclaims the essential good of existence and the good of that which exists, acknowledges the goodness of the Creator and proclaims the good of creatures. Man suffers because of evil, which is a certain lack, limitation or distortion of good. We could say that man suffers because of a good in which he does not participate, from which in a certain sense he is cut off, or of which he has deprived himself. He particularly suffers when he 'ought' — in the normal order of things — to partake in this good and does not. Thus,