Overview

The experience of suffering has posed a profound existential challenge to human hearts and minds throughout history. But it has become especially problematic in our time, when, with our good intentions and technological prowess, we seek to relieve the suffering of our patients at any cost, while in the end reducing the fullness of their personhood. What we have failed to grasp is that the one who suffers yearns not only for relief from pain but a response to the deep-seated questions that suffering provokes. Cry of the Heart is the late Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete's incisive and heartfelt look at what the experience of suffering reveals to each of us. He draws upon insights from literary figures such as Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Elie Wiesel; adds the wisdom of Saints John Paul II and Padre Pio; and engages our own everyday human experience. Albacete challenges caretakers and friends to co-suffer with those in distress, by not only treating their mental and physical symptoms, but also participating in their questions in a relationship directed to the redemptive love of the Mystery who makes us. In addition to a foreword by Albacete's close friend, Cardinal Seán O'Malley, Cry of the Heart also includes a newly-researched biographical essay about the author that provides surprising insights into the man and his work.

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9781639821266

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Reviews

We often hear that suffering is a mystery. The cry of Albacete's heart shows us more: suffering is an encounter with the Mystery. May all who read this book have the courage to enter in. -Christopher West, ThD, President, Theology of the Body Institute Monsignor Albacete reflects upon suffering as part of the drama of personal life that is oriented toward transcendence. Cry of the Heart is meaty, challenging, redemptive. -Heather King, author, speaker, and arts and culture columnist for Angelus News Having known Lorenzo since I was a seminarian, I had some sense of the suffering he endured in his own life. Cry of the Heart has not only helped me to understand my old friend more deeply, but through it Lorenzo has given me a way of approaching my own experiences with a renewed vision of true hope. -William E. Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore Pope Benedict XVI once mused that the modern world, beset by suffering, has increasingly become a Holy Saturday. In this profoundly moving book, Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete enters this Holy Saturday to plumb the mystery of human suffering and discovers within it something even more mysterious-the certainty of resurrection. -Joshua Stancil, Executive Director, Living With Convictions, Inc.

"We often hear that ""suffering is a mystery."" The cry of Albacete's heart shows us more: suffering is an encounter with the Mystery. May all who read this book have the courage to enter in. -Christopher West, ThD, President, Theology of the Body Institute Monsignor Albacete reflects upon suffering as part of ""the drama of personal life that is oriented toward transcendence."" Cry of the Heart is meaty, challenging, redemptive. -Heather King, author, speaker, and arts and culture columnist for Angelus News Having known Lorenzo since I was a seminarian, I had some sense of the suffering he endured in his own life. Cry of the Heart has not only helped me to understand my old friend more deeply, but through it Lorenzo has given me a way of approaching my own experiences with a renewed vision of true hope. -William E. Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore Pope Benedict XVI once mused that the modern world, beset by suffering, has increasingly become a Holy Saturday. In this profoundly moving book, Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete enters this Holy Saturday to plumb the mystery of human suffering and discovers within it something even more mysterious-the certainty of resurrection. -Joshua Stancil, Executive Director, Living With Convictions, Inc."

Author Information

A Puerto Rican native, Lorenzo Albacete worked as an aerospace scientist before becoming a priest, professor, and theologian. His late-in-life encounter with Father Luigi Giussani propelled him to a U.S. leadership role in Giussani's Communion and Liberation movement in the U.S. He appeared frequently on CNN, PBS, and The Charlie Rose Show and wrote for The New York Times and The New Yorker. He died in 2014.

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