Following are excerpts from an interview with Thea Bowman, a Franciscan Sister who became a huge inspiration to black Catholic communities, and to wider circles for her joy and gratitude, her nobility of spirit, and her very real spirituality. The interview, published in Praying magazine and US Catholic, was conducted shortly before she died from cancer, in March 1990, at the age of 53. For me, she is the picture of courage and perseverance of a person living gracefully with pain.
Question: What kind of changes have you had to make in your life because of the cancer?
Thea Bowman: Part of my approach to my illness has been to say I want to choose life, I want to keep going, I want to live fully until I die …
I don’t know what my future holds. In the meantime, I am making a conscious effort to learn to live with discomfort, and, at the same time, to go about my work. I find that when I am involved in the business of life, when I’m working with people, particularly with children, I feel better. A kind of strength and energy comes with that.
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Thank you for sharing this interview — what a beautiful woman! I love this part: “I know that suffering gives us new perspectives and helps us to clarify our real value. I know that suffering has helped me to clarify my relationships … Perhaps suffering stops us in our tracks and forces us to confront what is real within ourselves and in our environment.”
I have never felt closer to God than I did when my husband when in the hospital due to a psychotic episode. I think Sister Bowman is right — suffering strips away everything that’s not essential and helps us get to the truth of who we are.
I discovered that I can be selfless, and that a lot of things that had seemed very important to me (buying a house, having a baby, advancing my husband’s career) really weren’t that important after all.
I blog about marriage and mental illness. Please click on my name above if you’d like to check it out.
Best,
Heather
Fascinating interview. She made the motto “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional” practice