Really, we need consolation and hope. However, where can we get consolation? Churches that have spontaneously offered us strength, comfort, hope, love and salvation are emptying out day by day.
Compared to Europe, Korea is a bit better off, but more than half of the registered Catholics here are apathetic and non-practicing. Where are they going? Why are religious congregations and orders shrinking?
Through various renewal movements such as "Laudato si'" and "Sinodalitas," the Catholic Church is working hard to improve challenging limit situations, but fundamental and existential questions are still being raised.
What do you do when you are lonely, when you are sad, when you are afraid, when you are sick, when you are hurt, when you feel you are being ignored, when you feel self-pity, when everything seems to go wrong, when you are angry with yourself, when you cannot forgive yourself, when you judge yourself, when you cannot get out of your own mind, when you are stuck in the past, when you feel you are not getting any attention, when you are sensitive, when everything is grey, when an unpleasant feeling does not go away, when you feel that someone is plotting against you?
"Die kleine Trostapotheke. Weisheit fur unfreundliche Tage" (English title: "The Little Consolation Pharmacy. Wisdom for Unkind Days") written by both Anselm Grun and Ansgar Stufe gives us 18 uncomfortable difficulties and eighteen prescriptions with comforting medicines that lead us to discover our own spiritual strength to cope with limiting situations.
Like an inspiring duet, Anselm Grun gives us the healing power and psychological perspective of the related Bible passages, and Ansgar Stufe, who worked for 16 years at a missionary hospital in Tanzania, shares his rich experience as a physician and a Saint Benedictine monk.
The two authors as pharmacists hope that their stories will touch our hearts, heal our souls, comfort us in all our pain and difficulties, lift us up and thus find consolation.
Anselm Grun examines and embraces the psychological situations of people, focusing on the healing power of the Bible. And Ansgar Stufe focuses on his rich experience as a doctor and a religious monk, prescribing necessary spiritual medicines.
Containing 18 painful hardships and 18 comforting medicines, the book gives us spiritual prescriptions with four steps.
First, it invites us to accept and talk about the difficulties we face psychologically and mentally, such as loneliness, sadness, anxiety, sickness, hurt, neglect, self-pity, anger and obsession.
Second, the experiences of the two authors invite us to have a conversation within various situations.
Third, the words of consolation and the Bible passages empower us to cope with difficult situations.
Fourth, similar but different prescriptions for each subject hand over the opened prescription so that we can choose our own prescription and overcome the reality with our spiritual strength.
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves." (Matthew 11:28-29)
The author is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul (fsp.pauline.or.kr.) living and giving the Good News to the world by means of social communication.