{"id":598,"date":"2013-03-30T20:16:53","date_gmt":"2013-03-30T20:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=598"},"modified":"2013-03-30T19:37:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-30T19:37:02","slug":"even-with-pain-even-with-illness-alleluia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/03\/even-with-pain-even-with-illness-alleluia.html","title":{"rendered":"Even with Pain, Even with Illness, Alleluia!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Image courtesy of graur codrin\/FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Holiday celebrations can sometimes be forced affairs. A date on a calendar is hardly reason of itself to raise spirits and feel emotions that the holiday evokes. Living with a serious illness or debilitating pain can certainly overshadow any “happy” occasion – even the birthday of a loved one or a day like today, Easter Sunday, when we are able once again to lift up the “Alleluia” in church and praise God for this marvelous gift of salvation.<\/p>\n

How do we sing “Alleluia!” if we feel downtrodden, hopeless, sad, and weighed down by illness? How do we feel the balm of faith, the comfort of\u00a0God who truly loves each of us and is ever-present?<\/p>\n

I remember holidays when I lost my voice, had awful pain, couldn’t\u00a0go to mass. I remember Christmases when I was too sick to get out of bed. And Easters, too.\u00a0\u00a0“Normal” ways of celebrating were unavailable to me. Participating as part of a faith community was impossible, too.\u00a0\u00a0In those times, I did what I could\u00a0to remember the day. Reading scripture and other inspirational work, watching services on television or listening to uplifting music\u00a0were helpful. But most of all, what was truly helpful was that, these holidays, as fixxed as they are on the calendar or as part of a liturgical cycle, are events we can\u00a0 celebrate, indeed live, each day.<\/p>\n

If you have been too sick to participate in Easter services, or feel so awful that it is difficult to raise your voice in praiseful song, know that God is still with you, and that this Easter is with you, too, bringing the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection and our eternal salvation. Know that your heart is held gently in God’s hands. And know that you will have other opportunities to celebrate, to praise, to live the reality that is Easter, as the days unfold.<\/p>\n

As Christians gather worldwide\u00a0on Easter Sunday, they will pray for you, for me, and for all people of good faith. Feel those prayers, feel that care that comes with them. And feel that, although pain and illness are very deep, the joy of God’s love and the spirit of Easter go even deeper – to the\u00a0soul which, no matter what, is always ready to sing “Alleluia!”<\/p>\n

Blessings for the day,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holiday celebrations can sometimes be forced affairs. A date on a calendar is hardly reason of itself to raise spirits and feel emotions that the holiday evokes. Living with a serious illness or debilitating pain can certainly overshadow any “happy” occasion – even the birthday of a loved one or a day like today, Easter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43],"tags":[490,44,182,491,478,183,19,30,311,492],"class_list":["post-598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","tag-alleluia","tag-chronic-pain","tag-comfort","tag-despair","tag-easter","tag-gods-love","tag-illness","tag-pain","tag-praise","tag-singing-praise"],"yoast_head":"\nEven with Pain, Even with Illness, Alleluia! - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/03\/even-with-pain-even-with-illness-alleluia.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Even with Pain, Even with Illness, Alleluia! - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Holiday celebrations can sometimes be forced affairs. 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}