In Time of Suffering

My brothers, count it pure joy when you are involved in every sort of trial.
Realize that when your faith is tested this makes for endurance.
Let endurance come to its perfection
so that you may be fully mature and lacking in nothing.
Happy the man who holds out to the end through trial!
Once he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life
the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
James 1: 2- 4 ,12

It is very important to cross the threshold of hope,
not to stop before it, but to let oneself be led.
I believe that the great Polish poet Cyprian Norwid
had this in mind when he expressed the ultimate meaning
of the Christian life in these words:
"Not with the Cross of the Savior behind you, but
with your own cross behind the Savior."
There is every reason for the truth of the Cross
to be called the Good News.
- Pope John Paul II

In our darkest moments -
we are closest to God.
- Father Paschal

PRAYER

I thank thee, Lord!

Lord, I give thee thanks
For what I have lost,
For what I have wept,
For what I have suffered.

Dispossessed,
Weeping and suffering,
I have felt
Thy Mercy
Thy Generosity
Thy Consolation and
Thy Goodness.

I give thee thanks, Lord;
Through suffering I live
Closer to Thee.

I thank thee, Lord!

Amen.

- Cecilia Rodriguez

YOUR CROSS

The everlasting God has in
His wisdom foreseen from
eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a
gift from His inmost heart.
This cross He now sends
you, He has considered
with His all-knowing eyes,
understood with His divine
mind, tested with His wise
justice, warmed with
loving arms and weighed
with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too
large and not one ounce
too heavy for you. He has
blessed it with His Holy
Name, anointed it with His
grace, perfumed it with
His consolation, taken one last glance at you and
your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven,
a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the
all-merciful love of God.

- St. Francis de Sales

   Calvary is with us and we
   share Christ's Passion in
   our afflictions. For those
   who have Faith, their
   afflictions and sufferings
   are united with the
   sufferings of Christ and
   for the sake of His Body,
   the Church. Afflictions
   are still to be endured.
   We are suffering in Him,
   and He is suffering in us.
   And when life becomes
   too hard to take, we
   should try to understand
   the Cross and become
   united with the Passion
   of Christ.

   (These thoughts are
   derived from a talk on
   suffering given by
   Archbishop Fulton Sheen.)

Many are the afflictions of
the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us.

Wait on the Lord: be of good
courage, and He shall
strengthen your heart:
Wait, I say, on the Lord.

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint.