The CUSAN - Summer 2023

The CUSAN CUSAN

Summer 2023

An Apostolate of Persons with Chronic Illness and/or Disability

Copyright © 2023 by RENEW International

The CUSAN is the semi-yearly magazine of CUSA, an apostolate of persons with chronic illness and/or disability.

The citation from the Gospel of John on page 8 is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The photograph on page 25 is by Khoiru Abdan on Unsplash.

Cover and interior design by Linda L. Eberly.

Published and printed in the United States of America by RENEW International.

Mare Ernesto

CUSA Administrator

1232 George Street

Plainfield, NJ 07062

email: cusa@renewintl.org

Rev. Jerome Bracken, C.P.

CUSA National Chaplain

Immaculate Conception Monastery

86-45 Edgerton Boulevard

Jamaica, New York 11432

RENEW International

1232 George Street

Plainfield, NJ 07062-1717

Phone: (908) 769-5400

www.renewintl.org

www.cusan.org

In This Issue

by Dolores Steinberg | Editor

Welcome to this summer issue of The CUSAN. As you will see, the celebration of CUSA’s 75th anniversary continues— first, with the 2023 “Spirit of RENEW” award which CUSA was given by RENEW in June at a lovely venue in New Jersey. Also in June, after information-gathering through interviews and photos, an excellent article about CUSA, written by Susan Hines-Brigger, was published in the St. Anthony Messenger and the publisher gave us permission to reprint it in this issue.

Fortunately, too, in this issue we have articles by you!

CUSAN Elizabeth Stewart has written a new book, Let Christ Transform Your Pain: How Jesus Can Use Your Suffering to Bring About a Greater Good, and tells us about it here. Shirley Bowling opens our eyes to a deeper look into what may at first seem “ordinary.” Father Jerry writes about an early peacemaker and how we in our day might follow his example. And from Father Lawrence we learn more about Psalm 34—its power, structure, how we might pray it, and what a gift we have in the psalms.

Shortly before the Winter 2023 issue of The CUSAN was printed, we learned of the death of Jennifer Bober, who was RENEW’s marketing manager, and very supportive of CUSA. We remember her and pray for her with gratitude. God bless you all, and may peace and joy be yours always!

At its annual Gala dinner-dance, RENEW International honored several individuals or organizations for their contributions and achievements. This year, RENEW presented its Spirit of RENEW award to CUSA at the Gala on June 8 at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, New Jersey. The award acknowledged the apostolate’s jubilee last year, celebrating 75 years of friendship and mutual support among its members. Attending the Gala were Joan Donnelly, former president of the CUSA Board of Directors; Anna Marie Sopko, former CUSA administrator; Dolores Steinberg, editor of The CUSAN, a semi-annual magazine; and Father Jerry Bracken, C.P., CUSA national chaplain.

Greg Tobin, president of RENEW International, presents the Spirit of RENEW Award to Dolores Steinberg, left, and Joan Donnelly.

Anna Marie Sopko, administrator of CUSA from 1976 to 2007, attends the RENEW Gala.

A Letter to CUSANs

Rev. Jerry Bracken, C.P. CUSA National Chaplain

Dear CUSANs,

This week, the last week of June, we celebrated the memorial of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, who lived from approximately 120 to 200 a.d. In January of 2022, Pope Francis named him a doctor of the Church, a man born in the East, in what is now part of Turkey, who served in the West, in what is now Lyons, France. His name means peace, and indeed he was a peacemaker, but in a very special way.

What prepared Irenaeus to be such a peacemaker was his early formation. Not a convert, but born of Catholic parents, he saw and listened to Bishop Polycarp, who was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist—thus, only a few generations after Jesus lived on earth. Then, Irenaeus was well educated in the Scriptures, in Greek philosophy, and in literature, and was taught by the famous theologian/philosopher St. Justin Martyr.

After that, Irenaeus served the first bishop of Lyons, St. Pothinus, who sent him to Rome on his first peacemaking mission, which concerned the Montanists. They were a very ascetical group that discouraged marriage and had the heretical belief that a new Jerusalem would soon come down out of heaven. Irenaeus asked the pope to treat them gently and not excommunicate them.

After St. Pothinus was martyred, Irenaeus was chosen to succeed him as bishop of Lyons. He reached out to people by sending out two deacons and a priest as missionaries, and he himself chose to speak the Gaulish language of the people rather than Greek, his own language.

Irenaeus sought to deal with the Gnostics, another heretical group that was more powerful than the Montanists. They believed that a lesser god created the material world and that people could escape this world through a secret knowledge (gnosis). This knowledge was a hodge-podge of philosophy, myths, magic, and teachings of Jesus.

To deal with the Gnostics’ teachings, Irenaeus wrote his five-volume work, Adversus Haereses. In its first book he wrote, “Because their language resembles ours, while their sentiments are very different, I have deemed it my duty . . . to unfold these portentous and profound mysteries.” Then Irenaeus wrote, “As soon as a person has been won over to their way of salvation, he becomes so puffed up with conceit and selfimportance that he imagines himself to be no longer in heaven or on earth, but to have already passed into the Pleroma [a state of completeness] and with the majestic air of a cock, he goes strutting about—as if he had already embraced his angel.”

Nonetheless, Irenaeus treated the Gnostics with respect. Before writing Adversus Haereses, he carefully studied some of their commentaries and acquainted

himself “with their tenets through personal intercourse with . . . them.” In the first two books, he presented how Gnostic teaching came to be and what that teaching was. Scholars even today say his presentation of their beliefs is quite accurate.

The way Irenaeus treated the Gnostics, reading their texts and talking with them, is so different from the way many people treat their opponents. Try reading what is reported in the paper or on the web, or try listening to the radio or watching TV to learn what one group reports, and then do the same for the other group. How often does it happen that each side reports only their side of the story?

Irenaeus was not like that. In his third book, Irenaeus took what Gnostics said about Jesus and his teachings and carefully showed where they had erred.

The Gnostics said Jesus should not be recognized as a rabbi, since to qualify as a teacher of God’s Word one had to be between 30 and 50 years old. Yet, they argued, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke report that Jesus’ ministry was but for one year, with one pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover when he was only 30 years old.

So Irenaeus examined the Gospel of John, the Gnostics’ favorite. It recounted that Jesus made the Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem in three different years. This can be verified. John recounts that after the first Passover Jesus went to the place where John the Baptist had been baptizing, but after the second

Passover Jesus went north to Galilee, and after the third Passover Jesus did not leave Jerusalem but was crucified there. So Jesus was at least 33 years old. Moreover, in the Gospel of John (8:56–59) Jesus said, “Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” That would imply that Jesus was in his 40s; otherwise, they would have said, “You are not yet forty years old”!

Because Irenaeus took seriously what the Gnostics had written and said, and so carefully used the Scriptures to refute their arguments, the heresy of Gnosticism ceased to be a serious challenge to the Christian faith.

Even in his theology of God and creation, Irenaeus, a Father of the Church, took a fatherly view of the human race. God began the world and has been overseeing it ever since this creative act, so everything that has happened is part of his plan for humanity. The essence of this plan is a process of maturation and therefore it will take a long time for humanity to grow into a full likeness to God. That is, civilizations must mature.

At the end of his life, Irenaeus showed himself the peacemaker one more time. There was a controversy between the Eastern and Western Church as to when Easter should be celebrated. Should it be the same as the “fourteenth Nisan” of the Jewish calendar when the Jews celebrated Passover, or should it be

a different time? Pope Victor I wanted it to be on a Sunday, but Irenaeus argued there was no need for that to happen. In the time of St. Polycarp, who knew St. John the Evangelist, neither the Eastern nor the Western Church saw the necessity of celebrating the main feast of the Church on the same date. So the pope withdrew his demand.

Why is St. Irenaeus such a good model for you who are CUSANs? It is his manner of thinking and acting towards others, whatever their opinions and whatever their convictions. You yourselves, as you read, listen to, or watch what is reported in the news, might well see one group fighting another group, refusing to treat the other side with respect, much less giving it a hearing. It can be upsetting to witness this. So what can you do? Do as you have done as a committed CUSAN: pray. Pray that the Gospel of peace and reconciliation will be heard and listened to.

I think the words of absolution for the Sacrament of Penance express well our belief in God’s saving grace.

“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and has poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace. And I absolve you from your sins. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Sincerely,

In Memoriam

RENEW International and CUSA said farewell to Jennifer Bober, RENEW’s marketing manager since 2015, who went home to God on January 21 after battling cancer for more than three years.

Jennifer had an unshakeable faith in God, an infectious laugh, and an upbeat personality, even in the face of mortal illness. She was enthusiastic about RENEW’s partnership with CUSA, whose importance she understood so well.

“I have a chronic, terminal illness,” she wrote in The CUSAN, “it does not define me…. It is only a small part of who I am. I am still a sister, a friend, an employee, a musician, a writer, an artist, and, most importantly, a woman of faith. I am so much more than my diagnosis, and my faith centers me.”

She was a passionate cook and baker; she played recorders and tabor pipes and engaged in medieval costuming and embroidery; and she was a cantor at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in South Orange, New Jersey.

The homilist at Jennifer’s funeral said that Jennifer “collected friends the way some people collect postage stamps.” One of the friends she had made in high school recalled upon her death, “You were the best of us and the type of person that we all strive to be.”

Rest in peace.

From Friar Lawrence’s Spiritual Apothecary

“The Lord hears the cry of the poor.”

by Father Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M. AdministratorofCUSAfrom2007through2021

This antiphon is based on Psalm 34, a favorite prayer of mine. My affinity for this psalm dates back to the mid-1990s when I was struggling with Ménière’s disease. The disease is named for a French doctor who discovered its cause—namely, a fluid build-up in the inner ear. This particular disease robs people of their hearing. When the doctor told me that there was a possibility of losing my hearing completely, I was fearful. No one likes to lose one of their senses. However, while the loss of sight isolates one from things, the loss of hearing isolates one from people.

One day, the younger friars who were preparing to make their solemn vows approached me and asked if I would be willing to sing the responsorial psalm at their celebration. I accepted their invitation quite readily. They gave me the text of the responsorial that they had chosen which came from Psalm 34. As I read through the psalm, I happened upon a line that touched me deeply. “I sought the Lord, and he answered me, delivered me from all my fears.” I recognized immediately that I was fearful of my future as a deaf priest.

The next time I visited my spiritual director, I raised this issue with him. As we talked, he said that the only way to deal with fears was to go through them, not

around them. He told me that whoever composed this particular psalm knew this truth, because he was telling God of his fears in his prayer. He suggested that I do the same thing. “Just tell God how you are feeling about this diagnosis.” So I began repeating this verse from Psalm 34 throughout my day whenever my fears raised their ugly threat. While I cannot say that my fears dissolved and never bothered me again, I can say that repeating that line often reminded me that God knew how I was feeling.

Psalm 34 is an acrostic psalm. Each successive verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet—22 verses for the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Because the composer of the psalm was constrained by this form, there is not much unity of thought. Each verse offers a different teaching and lends itself to short little prayers that we used to call ejaculations. I became so enamored of the verses of the psalm that I now pray it every day.

I’m sure that if you go to your Bible and look up the psalm, you will find a verse that is particularly addressed to you. Each verse teaches us how to go through our fears, our distress, our problems. As one author put it, the psalms are like clothes lines on which we can hang every problem that we encounter.

May the Lord give you peace.

Especially for You

RENEW is offering its first virtual faith-sharing series exclusively for CUSA members. Father Jerome Bracken will lead an Advent faith-sharing experience every Wednesday from November 29 through December 20 at 1 p.m. Visit pages.renewintl.org/advent-faithsharing-cusa or scan the QR code to learn more or register.

This faith-sharing will be based on ADVENT: The Lord is Near—Year B. This book will help you prepare for each Sunday Mass by exploring the gospel reading, focusing on the meaning of Advent, and considering how you might make the most of the season. Scan the QR code to learn more about ADVENT: The Lord is Near - Year B or to purchase. Use code CUSA23 for 20% off this and other resources at store.renewintl.org.

RENEW has an extensive webinar and faith-sharing schedule. Stay up to date by visiting our events page and watch for our upcoming series with clinical gerontologist Dr. Jane Thibault focused on dedicated suffering. Visit renewintl.org/events for details.

Faith Sharing with RENEW

PrayerTime is a series based on the Sunday gospel readings for Cycles A, B and C. The sessions are designed for use by small groups or individuals.

Each book offers reflections that make the Gospel come alive. Raising profound questions about faith, each session sheds light on everyday life and should bear fruit in realistic action.

Explore the series here:

RENEW Scripture Series

This series moves beyond the Sunday Mass readings and unfolds the complete Gospels and their Old Testament roots. The series includes Matthew: Come Follow Me and Luke: My Spirit Rejoices! Coming soon: Mark: Growing in Faith—Volume 1.

See details here:

Use code CUSA23 for 20% off the price of these and other resources at store.renewintl.org!

CUSA: A Ministry of Connection

By Susan Hines-Brigger Photography by Diego B. Pisante

We are very grateful to St. Anthony Messenger for publishing this article in its June 2023 issue and for giving us permission to reprint it here.

Human connection is an essential part of life. For people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, though, sometimes that connection can be harder to find. That was the case for Laure Brunner. Home-bound due to congestive heart failure, Brunner sought companionship with others in the same situation as hers. When she lived in Belgium, she found that connection through L’Union Catholique des Malades (The Catholic Union of the Sick).

However, when she and her husband moved to the United States in 1939 due to World War II, she lost that support. Some of the members from her previous group, with whom she stayed in touch, encouraged her to start a similar group in the United States. But when she approached a number of priests about the idea, she found no assistance.

That is, until she contacted Father Thomas Finn of Massachusetts. He encouraged Brunner to establish the group and also agreed to become its first spiritual advisor. And so, on December 8, 1947—the feast of the Immaculate Conception—Group I of CUSA (The Catholic Union of the Sick in America) was established.

CUSA: A Ministry of Connection

FIGHTING AGAINST ISOLATION

CUSA is an apostolate of persons with chronic illness or disability, meaning that the members themselves take an active part in the ministry. Each member, or CUSAN, is a part of at least one round-robin letter that circulates among no more than eight people.

Each group chooses a patron, a motto, and an intention for which they offer their prayers and suffering. In addition to the correspondence, each CUSAN also prays a common morning offering and prays for the

Members of the CUSA/RENEW family gather to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the organization. Seen here, from left to right, are: Joan Donnelly, board member; Anna Marie Sopko, former CUSA administrator; Greg Tobin, president of RENEW International; and Dolores Steinberg, editor of CUSA’s magazine. Greg Tobin is displaying the papal blessing CUSA received in connection with the anniversary.

members of his or her CUSA family. By uniting themselves with the crucified Savior, members participate in what the Church calls “redemptive suffering.” In the correspondence, CUSANs share events of their lives as well as the faith that guides and supports each of them in their illness or disability. Members are also encouraged to write a personal message to each of the other members. At times, the group’s spiritual advisor or leader will lead a specific discussion.

Anna Marie Sopko, a longtime member and former administrator of CUSA, says members of the groups “try to make each other feel that we are a family, where members can share their activities, feelings, frustrations, spiritual insights, and whatever—just as brothers

Anna Marie Sopko is a longtime member and a former administrator of CUSA.

CUSA: A Ministry of Connection

and sisters do. Very often people with disabilities have no one to share these with—and this is where CUSA comes in.”

Sopko first became involved with CUSA in 1954, when she was no longer able to attend college because she could not independently walk or travel by bus. Being homebound, she reached out to a contact with CUSA and asked if they had any work for her.

“CUSA did offer me a small job—$25 a week—25 more dollars than I was getting at home,” recalls Sopko. “I grabbed it. The job continued, in different ways and with more than $25 a week, for over 40 years. Through it, I met some of the most wonderful people in America,” she says.

The organization began to hold annual days of recollection for the disabled in the New York/New Jersey area. They contacted a local organization of Catholic nurses to get volunteers to assist participants and volunteer drivers to transport CUSANs to and from these events. The days of recollection inspired other CUSANs to have similar events in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles, as well as other places.

Eventually, Sopko says, she was asked to take over as administrator for CUSA in 1976. She served in that role until 2007. She says, “My responsibilities as administrator were varied, depending on the needs, just as a mother’s responsibilities to her family depend on the needs of each member.”

CUSA: A Ministry of Connection

EMBRACING CHANGE

Over the years, there have been a number of changes to CUSA, whether it be technology, its name, or its leadership. The most recent change, however, is its partnership with RENEW International as of January 2022.

Greg Tobin is president of RENEW, which, he explains, “is a nonprofit organization within the Catholic Church whose mission is to unlock the power of small groups in parishes by helping to inform and equip laity and clergy to share their Catholic faith and live it every day.”

He says that the two organizations are now “discovering how we complement each other.” CUSA, he says, “has brought to us this powerful example of faith,

In December 2022, members of the CUSA/RENEW family gathered at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in South Orange, New Jersey. LEFT TO RIGHT: Eileen Lynch (director of sales and marketing, RENEW International), Mary Sue Schneider (sister of former CUSA administrator Anna Marie Sopko), and Julia Dillon (senior managing editor, RENEW International) attend the anniversary event.

which only enhances our own daily commitment to mission.” In return, RENEW offers “a platform and the support to ease, encourage, and cut down any barriers to communication for the members,” says Tobin.

For years, CUSA membership has relied on things such as word of mouth, participating clergy, and sometimes nurses or doctors to let people know about the organization. Now, RENEW can provide the support necessary for CUSA to reach a wider audience, says Tobin.

One way is by helping members address the changes in technology. For the first 40 years or so, members communicated through handwritten letters. But as technology advanced, so did the members of CUSA, and letters became emails. “Not all are fluent with email or digital communication. We can really help in that way.”

But as Sopko says, “No matter whether they receive the support through the mail or through their computers, CUSANs have found solace in the words of people who know their pain.”

On a personal level, Tobin shares how his personal involvement in the group has impacted his prayer life. “The level of faith and the level of insight and support is phenomenal; it’s powerful,” he says. “I hope and pray for an expansion of awareness of this ministry in the near future for people who are not necessarily homebound, as we have traditionally understood that, but who do feel isolated.”

CUSA: A Ministry of Connection

A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

Franciscan Father Lawrence Jagdfeld whole-heartedly agrees with that sentiment. Father Jagdfeld served as administrator of CUSA from 2007 to 2021. He says, “We don’t realize how many people are suffering from chronic illness and disability.”

Father Jagdfeld personally understands the importance of an organization like CUSA. He has experienced physical suffering and chronic illness in his own life. The hearing in his right ear has been affected by Meniere’s disease. He has also survived colon cancer and deals with psoriatic arthritis and post-polio syndrome.

His health challenges, he says, have provided “a new window through which I was reading the Gospel.”

Father Jagdfeld first became involved with CUSA when he was serving as executive secretary for the Franciscans of the Sacred Heart Province. He was encouraged to take part in the CUSA ministry as one of the religious members in the groups. He began participating in one group but, after six months, was asked to take part in a second one.

From there, his involvement continued to grow.

For a number of years, he worked as the editor of the organization’s magazine (The CUSAN), leaning on his background as a writer and English teacher. He joined the board of directors in 1995 and, in 2007, was asked to

CUSA: A Ministry of Connection

CUSA: A Ministry of Connection

become the administrator of CUSA, a position in which he served until his retirement in 2021.

“One of the things about disability is the inherent loneliness,” he points out. “It cuts you off from other people.”

CUSA, however, provides participants with others with whom they can associate, he says. “It gives people an outlet for some of the loneliness that comes with chronic disease and disability,” says Father Jagdfeld. “We will all be called to some type of suffering. That doesn’t necessarily mean physical suffering. There’s emotional pain, there’s psychological pain.” In light of that, he says, “I think [CUSA] is something the world needs.”

WHAT COMES NEXT?

The current administrator of CUSA is working to make sure the organization continues for those it serves. Mare Ernesto, who served as associate director of pastoral services at RENEW, took on this new role shortly after RENEW and CUSA began their partnership. When asked how she came to get the job, Ernesto says: “Short answer: the Holy Spirit. I was in the right place at the right time.” She had expressed interest in supporting and helping with the program when the partnership with RENEW began.

She manages the logistics of the organization, such as keeping the member list up to date, but, perhaps more importantly, she is focusing on how to spiritually

support the members and how to help them on their faith journeys.

The thing she loves the most about her new role, she says, is the people.

“I have the privilege of being able to read—at least for the electronic groups—their emails. I’m part of their groups on the periphery. I’m inspired by that. I’m constantly in awe of knowing their stories, being invited into a little snapshot of their life. It’s a blessing just to be able to see the community that’s building up in each group.”

And building up those communities is what Ernesto wants to focus on. She says she loves the fact that as the forms of communication have changed from letter writing to email, members haven’t just given up. There are still one to two active letter-writing groups. In that spirit, Ernesto wonders: “How are we reestablishing that foundation of CUSA? What’s the next iteration? Those are the conversations that we’re starting to shift to. What else can we offer?”

“We know what CUSA has been,” she says, “which is building small communities for individuals who may feel isolated.” The real question, she says, is: Where is CUSA going?

Copyright © 2023 by Franciscan Media

Susan Hines-Brigger is an executive editor of St. Anthony Messenger, which is published by the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province, Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Ordinary … or is it Ordinary?

by Shirley Bowling EGL 4

The day my sister-in-law’s dog, Muff, died, I had a lump in my throat. Bonnie, my sister-in-law, was single, and Muff was her baby. For the 16 years Bonnie had her, Muff had never been rebellious or sassy. She was an ordinary dog (or was she?) in an ordinary home. Muff had been obedient, loyal, sensitive, and a caring companion to her best friend. Muff was one of the family.

I go back to Genesis, where God created the animals on the fifth day. He was pleased with these creatures, and saw how good they were. Bonnie believed that God had provided a resting place for the animals that he created. It provided comfort in her grief. We know that whatever God creates is good and has purpose and meaning.

Bonnie wanted Muff buried in her back yard, so she stopped in a cemetery and asked a workman if he had the tools to dig a hole for her dog. Bonnie was crying, and the workman said he would be glad to bury her dog. He had a shovel and a pick. The weather was hot and humid, but Muff was lovingly laid to rest by a Good Samaritan stranger whose heart included God’s four-legged creatures.

While grieving for an ordinary dog that provided companionship beyond the ordinary, I felt God’s presence in the seeking and finding of an ordinary worker to give dignity to the burial of a faithful friend. But it was no ordinary worker, and it was no ordinary funeral. The caring Spirit of Jesus was in the compassionate worker who helped a grieving woman solve a problem.

You Are Invited

The CUSAN is your magazine, published twice a year with only you in mind. The CUSAN is also an opportunity for you to share your feelings, ideas, and talents with CUSANs everywhere.

If you feel the urge to write prose or poetry or share an artwork or photo to inspire, assist, inform, or simply entertain your companions on this journey, please contact the editor, Dolores Steinberg, at 1403 Teresa Drive, Apt. 4E, Fort Lee, NJ 07024 or via e-mail at sdolores12n@gmail.com.

Snap a picture, draw a tree, spin a rhyme, tell a tale, review a book, comment on something you read in The CUSAN. Everyone would love to hear from you.

CUSA member writes on bearing ‘true crosses’

Readers of The CUSAN have already been blessed with excellent articles by Elizabeth Stewart:

“An Autumn Pilgrimage to Walsingham,” “Married Saints,” and “How a Near Death Experience Changed My Life.” Her recent book, Let Christ Transform Your Pain , opens new vistas to those who suffer. May it reach many readers. She provided the following summary for inclusion in this issue. Spread the word!

CUSA member Elizabeth Stewart has written a new book on how to offer up our suffering. This daily offering is, of course, something that CUSA members all practice; it is what we promise to do each day in our morning prayer.

Others may not be familiar with it, however, as, although it is a long-standing and traditional Catholic teaching, it is not widely preached or written about today.

Dr. Stewart was left severely physically disabled after a catastrophic traffic accident in 1983. While in hospital, she read St. Therese’s Story of a Soul, and was converted to the Catholic faith. St. Therese explains how she learned to offer all her pain and sufferings,

however large or small, to Jesus, to be united with his suffering on the cross.

Applying that practice to her own pain and disability showed Dr. Stewart how powerful the effects can be, and how reassuring it is to know that whatever we are going through—whether physically or emotionally— our own pain may be used by Christ to help others.

Sufferings may be either a “false cross” or a “true cross.” This book shows that false crosses consist of unnecessary suffering, and they can be given up completely.

Our true cross is the suffering that comes to us unbidden, and it may be of many different kinds. Some have emotional crosses to bear; some sufferings are caused by the actions of other people; some have serious physical illnesses. Yet other sufferings are spiritual in nature.

All these crosses are given to us by Christ, for our own ultimate good and that of others. He knows that, when we bear these crosses with good will and offer up our sufferings to him, he can bring great good out of what seem to be evil situations.

This book uses the examples of St. Therese, St. John Paul II, and Jesus Christ to illustrate the various sufferings that come to us, and shows how, by imitating their example, we too may share in the grace of redemptive suffering.

Dr. Stewart is a counselor and writer who lives in England with her husband, Colin. Her book, Let Christ Transform Your Pain: How Jesus Can Use Your Suffering to Bring About a Greater Good, is on sale at Amazon, priced $10.99 (£8.82) for the paperback edition and $3.99 (£2.37) on Kindle.

What is CUSA?

CUSA is an active apostolate that unites its members in the Cross of Christ so that they find God’s will or purpose in their suffering. Physical or mental illness or disability or chronic pain are the sole requirements for membership.

CUSANs are united through postal and email group letters that bring news of other members of the group and a message from the group’s spiritual advisor. Each CUSAN adds a message to the group-letter and mails it to the next group member.

By uniting in CUSA and collectively offering their crosses of suffering to Christ for the benefit of mankind, CUSANs help themselves and each other, spiritually and fraternally.

Members able to do so are asked to make an annual contribution of $20. Those unable to assist CUSA financially are still welcome to join.

Colin and Elizabeth Stewart

DIARY OF JERRY FILAN

The First American CUSAN (1918–1950) continued from the Winter, 2023 issue. After their pilgrimage to Lourdes, Jerry and his sister Mary visit a friend in Paris when their sea voyage home is delayed.

FRIDAY: September 27, 1946

Our BATORY should have sailed today. This is the day we looked forward to so many times when we were homesick and a little blue. However, in spite of everything we had quite a nice day. This afternoon we sat in the garden for a couple of hours while Mary wrote letters. Then we took a walk to the Post Office. Out here in the suburbs even the walk to the Poste is quite a trip. It was a warm, sunny day, however, and we enjoyed the stroll very much. Neuilly is a beautiful neighborhood anyway, but it looks especially lovely these days when the trees that line the boulevards are all turning gold. This morning we received a cablegram from Father Boyle suggesting that we visit Room I in the American legation.

Tonight Miss Lavan phoned to tell us that “Madame le General” would like us to come to tea tomorrow at four.

SATURDAY: September 28, 1946

The beautiful, warm autumn weather is still with us and we are so grateful for it. Our walk to Madame le General’s this afternoon was very pleasant. It takes just about an hour to get there so we didn’t have to rush at

all. Before going to Madame le General’s, we stopped to pick up Miss Lavan. She was as excited as we were about our party. The general lives around the corner from Miss Lavan in a big apartment house. We had to go up to the second floor and my chair wouldn’t fit in the lift. We managed to get up though. Mary carried me into the elevator and then, when I was settled upstairs, she and Madame le General carried my chair up the stairs.

I was very glad to be able to visit a real Paris apartment. Mary and I really had a lovely time. Madame had made tiny open face sandwiches and a cake that seemed more like a pudding to us. It was made of eggs and milk and was soft like a custard. She also served very good cocoa.

Madame and the general are both pupils of Miss Lavan. The general, especially, has progressed very much with his English lessons. We managed quite a lengthy conversation. In fact, we were enjoying ourselves so much we forgot the time. Instead of being

A park in Neuillysur-Seine, the Paris neighborhood where Jerry and Mary waited while trying to arrange passage home.

back in the hospital by six-fifteen, we were just leaving the apartment then.

It seemed so strange to be visiting over here. Mary and I were both curious about how the French apartments are laid out and about their furnishings. We were surprised to find that the rooms in that particular apartment were quite small, but that they were furnished much more elaborately than the average American apartment. The general and his wife have two sitting rooms and a dining room in addition to the other rooms. One sitting room is furnished throughout with chairs, objets d’art, etc., which one of the general’s relatives brought with him from China. The other sitting room is modernistic and functional. What I particularly noticed about the dining room was that the floor was tiled and that the windows and doors were curtained with dark blue velvet drapes.

While we were at tea, Madame le General showed us some French caricatures of the statesmen of the decade. They were very well done, but it was interesting to note the reaction of the French artist to the

The American Hospital of Paris, founded in 1906, where Jerry and Mary stayed during the last days of their journey.

various leaders. Stalin looked quite genial and Roosevelt was all smile. Truman looked like a kindly, but rather bewildered, Mr. Milquetoast.

Although we had such a good time this afternoon, today really started off very badly. In the first place, Mary phoned the U.S. Lines again and they said they couldn’t tell us anything until the third or fourth of October. They don’t expect a reply from the ship’s doctorsuntilthen.Shejustaboutgotbacktotheroom whenthemailcame.TherewasaletterfromPaulGallaghertowhomMaryhadwrittenwhensherealizedhow serious the shipping crisis was getting to be. In her letter she told him she hadn’t let Dad know any more than that there would be a “little delay” because she didn’twanthimtoworry.Nowwefind out that the first thingPauldidwastocallDad.Maryfeltveryblueabout it because, as she says, Dad will think things are even worsethantheyarebecausewetriedtokeephiminthe dark.GallagheralsosaidthatDadhadanappointment to see Fr. Farrell of the Seamen’s Institute and maybe that would help. It looks as if he just tossed the whole problem over to Dad. The only thing otherwise he had to suggest was that we write to Sec’y of State Byrnes and our other representatives over here.

Mary and I finished our triple novena tonight.

To be continued.

Diary of Jerry Filan