In October, Human Life International, Nebraska Bishops’ Pro-Life Office and the Archdiocese of Omaha Respect Life Apostolate are hosting a conference in Omaha, Nebraska, on the theme of : Life, Dignity, and Disability: A Faith that Welcomes.

Author Joseph Pearce will be one of the speakers. He writes at HLI’s Truth and Charity Forum:

One has to accept sorrow for it to be of any healing power, and that is the most difficult thing in the world … A priest once said to me, ‘When you understand what accepted sorrow means, you will understand everything. It is the secret of life’ (Maurice Baring).[1]
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Catholicism is a faith that welcomes life and is welcoming to the disabled because it is a faith that welcomes suffering. It is the Christian’s acceptance and embrace of suffering that is at the heart of his acceptance and embrace of the suffering of others.

This is the “secret of life” disclosed by the fictional priest in Maurice Baring’s last novel, from which the above quote is taken. The acceptance of sorrow or suffering is indeed the secret of life. When we understand that we will understand everything, or, if not everything, we will at least understand the hollowness of the lies and delusions with which the world tries to seduce us.

Read the rest of his lovely essay.