tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9531808.post4469150343797317003..comments2023-07-05T04:15:25.944-05:00Comments on Musings of a Discerning Woman: Suffering, Remaining & WitnessSusan Rose Francois, CSJPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09801188192396918147noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9531808.post-74858753807247073432014-08-18T14:25:49.676-05:002014-08-18T14:25:49.676-05:00Thanks for sharing Annie ... I'm thoroughly en...Thanks for sharing Annie ... I'm thoroughly enjoying and grateful for the opportunity to study theological ethics, but yes, there is also a desire to be less theoretically "there" and more actually "there" in the midst of it all.<br /><br />Thanks too for sharing your own powerful and transformative experience!Susan Rose Francois, CSJPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09801188192396918147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9531808.post-10943546380300485442014-08-18T14:02:28.251-05:002014-08-18T14:02:28.251-05:00First of all, I’m sending all best wishes as you c...First of all, I’m sending all best wishes as you complete your thesis. I have not forgotten both the anxiety and the joy of that experience. <br />I feel some frustration underwriting this post. Although your vocational path is moving you toward administrative work, I sense you want to get your hands dirty with the pastoral--the “being there.” And the the theology you discuss (Schreck/Rambo), like all theology, tries to describe the “being there” without ever going there. <br /><br />Eleven years ago, I witnessed a murder/suicide in my workplace. Mine was (and still is) the secondary trauma of the witness, watching someone suffer and bleed out without the power to stop it. One of the things I realized at that time is that, although Jesus suffers his own unimaginable passion, he did not have the particular pain of the impotent witness. He was able to heal those around him who were in suffering (except those in his hometown). So I turned to Mary whose 7 sorrows are those of the mother and witness. I picked up the rosary, the story of her witness: the joyful, the sorrowful, the glorious. I can’t tell you how much my spiritual life has been enriched by this practice.<br /><br />As you discuss, we are secondary witnesses to so much suffering: in Gaza, in Iraq, on the border, in Furguson. Theologians can go a long way to get a short distance (that’s their job). They can’t walk with those who suffer or those who suffer because others suffer.Anne Welchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07773939487916426557noreply@blogger.com