188. What To Do When Suffering Never Seems To End | Chantal Howard

How do you suffer well when the pain never seems to end. That is the question I sat with in this conversation with Chantal Howard, founder of a Catholic finishing school for young women and author of Show Me Your Scars, a book built on Fulton Sheen's theology of suffering. Chantal has spent years forming young women in identity and character, and she has walked through her own deep seasons of suffering too, from a hard chapter with her daughter to twenty four years of a marriage she calls both painful and victorious. We talk about what Fulton Sheen taught her about turning wounds into scars, why suffering might be the very thing that opens our hearts to love others well, and how I found my own peace in the middle of a health scare that changed how I see everything. If you have ever wondered whether your suffering has a purpose, I think this conversation will meet you right where you are. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments, and if this one speaks to you, please subscribe and share it with someone who needs it today.

Chantal is a mother of seven, an entrepreneur, and the founder of a Catholic finishing school that helps young women between the ages of fourteen and nineteen discover who they are through the lens of their faith. Her husband Peter has spent more than twenty years championing the life and legacy of Fulton Sheen, and that work is reaching a beautiful milestone with his upcoming beatification. Chantal's new book, released as a tandem series, Show Me Your Scars and The Fellowship of the Scars, gathers twenty testimonies from people who have walked through real suffering, including her own, and found that suffering and grace are not opposites but companions.

In this conversation we get into the purpose of suffering from a Catholic perspective, and why Fulton Sheen believed that suffering, offered well, becomes our way to happiness rather than something to simply survive. Chantal shares how her own marriage, now twenty four years in, has been both one of her greatest sources of pain and one of her proudest testimonies of grace, and how she and her husband learned to see their hardest seasons as scars rather than open wounds. We also talk about a devastating loss her family walked through when her daughter was pregnant, and how they found their footing again through prayer and community.

I share my own story of receiving a frightening health prognosis and how watching my son's love for me in that moment changed the way I saw my whole life. Chantal and I talk honestly about finding peace in pain, about what it looks like to build a genuine prayer life in the middle of busyness and distraction, and about raising daughters who know their worth in a culture that constantly tells them otherwise. We also touch on her Catholic finishing school, her work forming women of all ages through a related program, and the upcoming beatification conference where survivors and witnesses of Fulton Sheen's influence will gather to share how his teaching helped them heal through suffering. If you are in a season where the suffering does not seem to be ending, I hope this conversation reminds you that you are not alone in it, and that there is real purpose waiting on the other side.

Find more from Chantal:
Personal Website: https://chantal-howard.com/
Catholic Finishing School: https://catholicfinishingschool.com/
Show Me Your Scars (the book): https://fultonsheenmovement.com/show-me-your-scars
Beatification Pilgrimage: https://fultonsheenmovement.com/pilgrimage-register
America's Saint Conference: https://fultonsheenconference.com/
Mass Tickets: https://www.celebratesheen.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fulton.sheen.movement
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fultonsheeninstitute
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fultonsheenmovement

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