Virtue scores
Review
Suffering is the great equalizer. No one escapes it — not the saint, not the skeptic, not the comfortable suburbanite with every apparent advantage. Fr. Cedric Pisegna, a Passionist priest with years of pastoral ministry, knows this firsthand. In Thorns Have Roses, he offers a compassionate, accessible guide through the landscape of human pain, drawing on personal experience, pastoral wisdom, and the Christian conviction that suffering is never the final word. The book moves through the many faces of affliction — physical illness, grief, relational wounds, spiritual dryness, and the quiet ache of aging — before arriving at each chapter's deeper invitation: that God is not absent in our suffering but mysteriously present within it. Fr. Cedric is frank that he has "skin in the game," and that honesty gives the book its warmth. This is not theology from a safe distance; it is counsel from a companion who has sat with his own darkness. The title's central image — thorns becoming roses through grace — is one Fr. Cedric returns to throughout. Rather than minimizing pain or offering cheap consolation, he insists that meaning is available in the middle of suffering, not merely on the other side of it. Chapters on grieving well, learning to trust God, and cultivating a godly attitude are practically oriented without being reductive. At 211 pages, the book is a manageable read for those in the midst of a trial, when concentration is short and comfort is needed quickly. Fr. Cedric writes with an EWTN audience in mind — faithful, searching, and hungry for hope that is both honest and rooted in Christ.
✓ Strengths
- ✓The title itself — thorns alongside roses — signals an honest theology of suffering: that beauty and pain are not opposed in the Catholic imagination but are woven together in the life of faith, a position consistent with the Church's ascetical tradition.
- ✓Published by EWTN Religious Catalogue, the book stands within a reliable magisterial orbit, suggesting fidelity to Catholic doctrine on prayer, sacrifice, and the interior life.
- ✓Accessible Entry Point: For a parishioner newly confronted with serious illness, loss, or crisis of faith, this book offers a low-barrier entry into the Church's wisdom on suffering without requiring prior theological formation. It could serve well as a gift from a pastor or spiritual director.
⚠ Considerations
- ⚠Risk of Therapeutic Framing. The repeated emphasis on finding "meaning and purpose" in pain draws, perhaps inadvertently, from the therapeutic idiom of Viktor Frankl and modern psychology. While not incompatible with Catholic faith, this framing can subtly shift the goal from conformity to Christ to personal wellness — a distinction worth noting.