Trusting and having faith in God during difficult times can be incredibly hard. Often it comes to a point where one thinks of why does God allow such sufferings ? Why me Lord? But those who know their faith, well, know how and where they can seek solace. During such tribulations, we should not forget that Our Lord suffered the most during His Passion and his ignominious death on the Cross for the love of us; and how the Saints suffered as well for the love of Him. We can be consoled, in reflecting on quotations from the Bible and the Saints, during our trials or sufferings, such as these: Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” “The Christian’s motto is the cross. You will recognize God’s love by this sign, by the sufferings He sends you.” “I do not know what will happen to me; I only know one thing for certain, that the Lord will never fall short of His promises. “Do not fear, I will make you suffer, but I will also give you the strength to suffer,” Jesus tells me continually. “I want your soul to be purified and tried by a daily hidden martyrdom”. . .”How many times,” Jesus said to me a little while ago, “would you have abandoned me, my son, if I had not crucified you.” “Endure tribulations, illness, and pain, for the love of God and for the conversion of poor sinners.” – Padre Pio “Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.” “Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul except sin. God commands you to pray, but He forbids you to worry.” “If God sends you many sufferings it is a sign that He has great plans for you, and certainly wants to make you a saint.” “In proportion to our willingness to suffer for anyone is the measure of our love for Him. This, then, is the first thing that God desires to effect in sending us suffering - “that our souls may turn to Him alone”; “His thorns, as they wound us, spread abroad the perfume of our love.” But God sends us suffering also because “He longs to give us a “magnificent reward.” What is this reward? “He knows that suffering is the only means of preparing us to know Him as He knows Himself, and to become ourselves divine” through Sanctifying Grace. What does this imply? “O my God what shall we then see? What will be this life which will have no end? Our Lord will be the soul of our souls. O unsearchable mystery! “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love Him.” How do sufferings effect this? By conforming us to Christ Crucified, for “they greatly help to detach us from this earth, they make us look higher than this world; besides, life and pain are short; “tomorrow, in a brief hour we shall be at rest”; nay, even now “God already sees us in glory and rejoices in our every lasting bliss. I understand now why He lets us suffer.” St. Therese of Lisieux. According to St. Therese, another effect of suffering is the ransom of souls. “Jesus has for us a love so incomprehensible that He does not wish to do anything without making us His cooperators. He wills that we should have a part with Him in the salvation of souls.” How? “From the day He raised His standard of the Cross, all must fight and win in its shadow. Far more by suffering and persecution than by eloquent discourses does Jesus wish to build up His Kingdom. “ St. Therese esteemed every cross as a “mine of gold for us to turn to account”; and being overwhelmed with crosses, she cried out: “Jesus heaps favours upon us as upon the greatest Saints… Ours is an enviable lot, and the Seraphim in Heaven are jealous of our happiness. We must suffer in patience all the tribulations of this life - be they outbreaks of diseases, infirmities, sorrows, poverty, loss of goods, deaths of loved ones, injuries, persecutions and all contradictions. We must understand, too, that the trials of this life are signs that God loves us and wishes to save us hereafter. Let us also understand that involuntary mortifications (e.g. the trials during this pandemic), are more pleasing to Him than the voluntary mortifications that we undertake ourselves. Should we suffer illness, we must seek to resign ourselves absolutely to the will of God; this is more pleasing to God than any other devotion. If at this time we are unable to apply our minds to meditation, let us fix our gaze on our Crucified Saviour, offering Him our sufferings and uniting them to the sufferings which He bore on the cross for us. If we are burdened with poverty, we must conform to the will of God, all the inconveniences that come with poverty - cold, hunger, hard work, contempt and scorn. We must be resigned to trials, sufferings, in all adversities to accustom ourselves to say: “As God wills, so do I.” “Thy will be done O Lord, Thy will be done. The Lord givest and the Lord takest away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1, 21 We can better appreciate these crosses when we recall in our minds the evident love of God for us in giving us a soul, made us in His image, the beauty and wonders of His creations and above all the gift of His own self - in His Son, to die for us all on the Cross. “God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son” John, 3, 16. It was when the Eternal Father saw that we were all dead and deprived of His grace because of sin, moved by His immense love for us, His excessive love for us, that He commanded His beloved Son to make satisfaction for us (for our sins). “Because of the excessive love he bore us, he brought us to life in Christ, even when we were dead in our sins.” (Eph, 2, 4-5.) In the same way, Jesus, His Son, has given Himself unreservedly to us, because of His love for us: “He loved us and He sacrificed Himself for us.” (Gal., 2, 20) In this we behold the Lord of the world humbling Himself to such a degree as to take the nature of a servant, and subjecting Himself to all the miseries that other men suffer. Astonishingly, it would have been easy for Him to save us without dying and suffering; but He chose a life in which afflictions and sufferings would abound and His death would be one that would be bitter and steeped in shame; for He would die on a cross, a gibbet of infamy destined for criminals: “He humbled Himself becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Phil., 2, 8) St. Paul exclaimed: “The love of Christ presses us.” (11 Cor., 5, 14) The Apostle wants to tell us that not only the fact that Jesus Christ had suffered; but still more the love, which he had shown in His suffering for us, oblige us and even compel us to give our love to Him. St. Francis de Sales said: “ When we know that Jesus, has loved us so as to suffer death for us, and the death of the cross, does it not come to this: that our heart have been placed under a press, and it feels itself forced to pour forth its love by a violence that is as strong as it is alluring?” In so understanding the love God has for us, should we not reciprocate by loving Him with all our might by resigning to whatever trials or adversities that come to us in our lives? The story of St. Catherine of Sienna in one of her severest temptations will be a consolation for us to know that Our Lord Jesus is always with us during our trials. St. Catherine had yet to pass through the fires of temptation. Our Lord seemed to have forsaken her, while her cell was haunted by frightful figures who whispered evil thoughts in her ear and who pursued her even to the church with their hideous suggestions. "Why chastise your body thus?" they said, "you will never have courage to persevere. Life is for enjoyment, not for suffering. You will lose both the joys of this life and the happiness of the next; you will never endure to the end." Then Catherine set herself to fight bravely and not to look for comfort, for she remembered Our Lord's words to her when she had prayed for strength: "If you suffer with Me, you will also be rewarded; accept all adversities with a willing and cheerful heart." But the evil spirits beset her more and more strongly. "You cannot resist us," they said; "we will give you no peace until you give in to us; we will make your whole life unbearable by our torments." Then Catherine answered quietly, "I have chosen pain for my comfort; therefore, it will not be difficult for me to bear for the love of my Lord all that you shall do to me." At these words the evil spirits left her, and in the midst of a glorious light she saw Our Lord Himself standing before her. "Mine Own daughter Catherine," He said, "I have suffered for thee; think it not much therefore to suffer for Me." But Catherine asked Him where He had been all the time when she had been beset by such horrible temptations. He replied: "Daughter,I was in your heart, taking great delight to see love and holy fear and faith so strong in it. The pains of My servants are no delight to Me, but I rejoice to see their readiness to suffer patiently and gladly for My sake. Now that you have so bravely fought your battle, I will be with you more closely and will visit you more often than before." Then Catherine was filled with a great joy and gladness, and all her pain was forgotten. Love of God consists in doing God’s will. It is therefore necessary to be resigned to all God’s dispositions in our regard. This means we must welcome in peace everything that happens to us in both prosperity or in adversity, just as God wills: in the state of life where God wishes us to be, and in the state of health that God wishes us to have. All our petitions to God must be directed to this end - that His will may be perfectly fulfilled in us. To live well, it is necessary to imprint upon our souls the following general maxims of eternal life: Everything in this life comes to an end - both joy and sorrow; eternity alone never comes to an end. Whatever comes from the will of God -prosperity or adversity - is good and for our good. We must sacrifice all to gain all. Where there is not God, there is no peace. Love God and save our soul, nothing else is necessary. Fear nothing but to sin. You lose all if you lose God. Look on Jesus Crucified, then you will bear anything. Anything is painful that is not done for God. To want God alone, is to possess all wealth. Happy is the man who can say from his heart: my Jesus, I want you only, and nothing more. He who loves God, finds joy in everything; he who loves not God, finds joy in nothing. In times of adversities we could offer these prayers: Oh my Jesus, I offer this for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen. ............................ Dear Lord, Help me to remember in these troubled times The cross you carried for my sake, So that I may better carry mine And to help others do the same, As I offer up (whatever your concern or problem here) to you For the conversion of sinners For the forgiveness of sins In reparation for sins And for the salvation of souls. Amen ............................. Grant me grace, O merciful God,
to desire ardently all that is pleasing to You, to examine it prudently, to acknowledge it truthfully, and to accomplish it perfectly, for the praise and glory of Your name. Amen. .............................. Behold me, my beloved Jesus, weighed down under the burden of my trials and sufferings, I cast myself at Your feet, that You may renew my strength and my courage, while I rest here in Your Presence. Permit me to lay down my cross in Your Sacred Heart, for only Your infinite goodness can sustain me; only Your love can help me bear my cross; only Your powerful hand can lighten its weight. O Divine King, Jesus, whose heart is so compassionate to the afflicted, I wish to live in You; suffer and die in You. During my life be to me my model and my support; At the hour of my death, be my hope and my refuge. Amen. |
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January 2024
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