I am delighted that CTS has just published, in booklet form, an abridged version of the late Fr Benedict J. Groeschel’s book Arise from Darkness. The new version – titled A Test of Faith: When Life Doesn’t Go According to Plan – is addressed to everyone who has ever encountered times of “incredible darkness”: when they are overwhelmed by sorrow, loss and the fear that life has no meaning.
Groeschel believes we all experience this at some stage in our lives. Even those people who we consider to lead a charmed existence of good health and good fortune experience it at the end. Like the good physician of the soul that he is, the author tells us the truth: life on earth will have its share of woes that cannot be solved by pills, diets or distractions. However, we are not meant to merely endure or survive them; inexplicably to the secular mindset, they can be a means of spiritual growth – but only if we embrace the Cross.
