Are you ready to move beyond your comfort zone? Stay with me. There is an Ignatian practice that invites us to meditate on Jesus suffering on the cross. Gaze gently at this twelfth-century image from the Chartres Cathedral.
Now, feel your own suffering and the way it lives within you.
If you can, go deeper into your experience of it.
Now, return to the image of Jesus on the cross. Can you sense any way in which God might understand your suffering?
My Prayer:
Suffering One, No words can express the pain, so I am with it in the silence–with You.
Invitation to Prayer:
Pour your heart out to the One Who Can Understand.
Scriptural Touchstone:
Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46
Images
Jesus’ crucifixion (Mary and John below the cross) from the Passion Window at Chartres Cathedral (1145-55)
Other Posts in this Series
Life and Death
Talking about Death
Pray with Jill Geoffrion 
Thank you, Jill, for these meditations. I am soothed and deepened by them.
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I had seen those images before, but when you asked me to identify with them as expressions of my own suffering, I felt as if I were suddenly looking into a mirror. One particular image, the one with one hand open to others as if to say, “don’t come to close, I couldn’t bear it,” was revealing and troubling. Thank for helping me to externalize and then feel more deeply my own anguish and distress. This experience prepared me to identify with Jesus on the cross more profoundly–not that my suffering comes close to his, but I could feel a new sense of connection that I have not often felt before. Thank you, Jill.
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