Why does suffering exist? Why does a good God allow suffering? It's the age-old question - and while we may not have any neat answers, we do have an arresting image: Our Lady of Tenderness - the stunning vision of a mother's love for her child. Today on the podcast Katie meditates on the tenderness, sorrow, suffering, and softness of God. Tune in for some beautiful chant and to learn more about a beautiful devotion to Our Lady of Tenderness.
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www.bornofwonder.com
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Hail Mary, Богородице дѣво - Slavonic Byzantine Chant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrD7WMl9L4g
Our Lady of Tenderness Icon
https://russianicon.com/our-lady-of-tenderness-icon-main-features/
Madonna of the Streets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonnina_%28painting%29
What God is Not - Tenderness
https://whatgodisnot.com
St. Hildegard of Bingen PRX piece
https://beta.prx.org/stories/266720
Sarah Clarkson – This Beautiful Truth
Laura Fanucci https://substack.com/@laurakellyfanucci
Claire Swinarski – Live not by Life Hacks - https://substack.com/inbox/post/136692543
The More Loving One - W.H. Auden
https://poets.org/poem/more-loving-one
KINGS 19:11-13 - Elijah waiting for God on the mountain
"The Sorrows of Autumn"
https://www.bornofwonder.com/home/the-sorrows-of-autumn
Letter 177 from letters and papers from prison
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"The same God who is with us is the God who forsakes us (Matthew 15:34!). The same God who makes us to live in the world without the working hypothesis of God is the God before whom we stand continually. Before God, and with God, we live without God. God consents to be pushed out of the world and onto the cross; God is weak and powerless in the world and in precisely this way, and only so, is at our side and helps us. Matt. 8:17 Makes it quite clear the Christ helps us not by the virtue of his omnipotence but rather by virtue of his weakness and suffering! This is the crucial distinction between Christianity and all religions. Human religiosity directs people in need to the power of God in the world, God as deus ex machina. The Bible direct people towards the powerlessness and the suffering of God; only the suffering God can help.
The human being is called upon to share in God’s suffering at the hands of a godless world.... It is not a religious act that makes someone a Christian, but rather sharing God’s suffering in the worldly life."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAP6FHhhcMs