Praying Through Pain: A Scripture Based Journey

In this insightful manual, spiritual director Lee (Answering God’s Call) shares guidance for communing with God during adversity. Drawing on Ignatian spirituality, which emphasizes bringing one’s true feelings to god, Lee contends that “praying through pain very often calls for a new approach” to worship. In each brief chapter, she focuses on one emotion or state of being, offering meditations on its spiritual relevance, plus applicable prayers and scripture. In “Impatience,” a passage from Ecclesiastes reminds readers that “there is an appointed time for everything,/And a time for every affair under the heavens.” In “Helplessness,” Lee advises that “it is when we are most helpless that we realize our only help is in God,” offering a psalm that “seems to have been intended as a blessing for someone in danger.” Elsewhere, she devotes chapters to “Anger,” “Trauma,” and more, each concluding with questions that underline the chapter’s lessons (“How can you grow closer to God in times of isolation?”). Lee confronts pain with compassion, jettisoning platitudes for practical, text-based advice that readers can tailor to their own challenges, and striking a careful tone that neither minimizes readers’ adversity nor wallows in it. This will comfort Christians seeking new prayer practices in painful moments. (Dec.)