My Greatest Cross with Sister Gianna Junker, O.P.

Mamas in Spirit

On Holy Thursday Sister Gianna Junker, a Nashville Dominican, had a conversion of heart in which she learned to accept suffering and discovered what she grappled with most.

“I am my suffering. I am my biggest cross.”

While Sister Gianna, like all of us, found it easy to blame her suffering on other people and circumstances in her life, she realized that the person who most needed healing was her.

As Sister Gianna accepted her own interior struggle she learned a profound lesson: when we sit in a place where we can be in our own weakness and cry out to God, that is when he can reveal his love.

Sometimes we are forced to feel dependent, humiliated or weak--this can be incredibly uncomfortable. Yet, if we can experience these interior struggles to the point of throwing ourselves into the arms of Christ and confessing our full dependence on him, it is then we can receive the gifts of healing and joy.

We must get out of the way and let God work.