Category: Words of Wisdom

Suffering will never be completely absent from our lives. So don’t be afraid of suffering. Your suffering is a great means of love, if you make use of it, especially if you offer it for peace in the world. Suffering in and of itself is useless, but suffering that is shared with the passion of Christ is a wonderful gift and a sign of love. Christ’s suffering proved to be a gift, the greatest gift of love, because through his suffering our sins were atoned for. Suffering, pains sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close that He can kiss you. – Mother Teresa

When you suffer, you may be completely in the dark about the reason for your own suffering. It may seem as senseless to you as Jesus’s suffering [initially] seemed to the disciples. But the cross tells you what the reason isn’t. It can’t be that God doesn’t love you; it can’t be that he has no plan for you. It can’t be that he has abandoned you. [On the cross,] Jesus was abandoned, and paid for our sins, so that God the Father would never abandon you. The cross proves that he loves you and understand what it means to suffer. It also demonstrates that God can be working in your life even when it seems like there is no rhyme or reason to what is happening. – Timothy Keller

“Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire.”– Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

In spite of this trial, which takes all enjoyment from me, I can never the less, cry out, ‘Lord, you fill me with joy in all that you do. For is there a joy greater than to suffer for love?’ – St. Therese of Liseux

“Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

“…when pain is to be born, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.”– C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

“You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone.” – Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul

“Suffering is the greatest treasure on earth; it purifies the soul. In suffering, we learn who our true friend is.” – St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul

Your tears were collected by the angels and were placed in a golden chalice, and you will find them when you present yourself before God. – St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

“Love of God is pure when joy and suffering inspire an equal degree of gratitude.”– Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved. -St. John of the Cross

The brightest ornaments in the crown of the blessed in heaven are the sufferings which they have borne patiently on earth. – St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Time is but a shadow, a dream; already God sees us in Glory and takes joy in our eternal beatitude. How this thought helps my soul. I understand then why he lets us suffer. -St. Therese of Lisieux

When I think of the happiness that is in store for me, every sorrow, every pain becomes dear to me. -St. Francis of Assisi

Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. – St Francis de Sales

The morrow of this day will be eternity; then Jesus will return you a hundred fold the lovely, rightful joys that you are sacrificing for him. – St. Therese of Lisieux

The heart of Christ can be seen through the openings of his wounds. For what can prove to me so clearly as your wounds that you, O Lord Jesus, are sweet & mild & plenteous in mercy. – St. Bernard

During painful times, when you feel a terrible void, think how the capacity of your soul is being enlarged so that it can receive God– becoming as it were, infinite as God is infinite. – St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Earth hath no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal. – St. Thomas Moore

Only one principle will give you courage, that is the principle that no evil lasts for ever, nor indeed for very long. – St. Epicuris

“One day, I saw two roads. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end of the road without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And there numbers were so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness, and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings.”
-Diary of Saint Faustina Kowalska

“We love only to the degree that we are willing to suffer.” – Fr. John Hardon, S.J.

Suffering enables us to see what is truly important. It takes away vain amusements. It reveals the lies that flatter us. It tests our will to confirm how far it is we are willing to sacrifice for someone we claim to love.

With suffering, we are taken away from our selfishness. We are not fooled anymore into believing we love someone just because of the things he or she is able to give us.

With suffering, we see how much we are willing to give without expecting anything in return. We are made to see how far we can give without recognition or praise.

Pure love seeks only the good of the beloved. It goes so far as to take upon oneself what’s difficult or even painful just to see our loved ones happy once again.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4, WEB-BE

“Suffering is a great grace; through suffering; the soul becomes like the Savior; in suffering love becomes crystallized; the greater the suffering the purer the love.” – St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My soul

Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. – Galatians 6:7, WEB

An iron wall may seem strong. We feel secure that it can’t easily be brought down by our enemies. But no matter how strong it may seem to be, it only takes rust to corrode it slowly. Time comes when the wall that seemed so strong collapses entirely because we have failed to remedy the one thing that caused it to fall down.

If we only knew the true weight of little things, we’d be more vigilant in dealing with them. If we only knew the big problems that come from our daily negligence, we’d remedy them before they ruin the important things in our lives.

Don’t neglect the little things. Don’t underestimate the small things that can ruin your health, your work or your relationships. Time seems to creep in ever so slowly, but it would soon reveal the harvest you have sown through the years.

“The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” – C.S. Lewis

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
-Matthew 5:4, WEB-BE

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4, WEB-BE

But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. – 1 Peter 5:10, WEB-BE

Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, WEB-BE

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed towards us. For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. – Romans 8:18-23, WEB-BE

Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. – Romans 5:3-5, WEB-BE

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly; of which I was made a servant, according to the stewardship of God which was given me towards you, to fulfil the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints, to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery amongst the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; for which I also labour, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily. – Colossians 1:24-29, WEB-BE

But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort. For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life. Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us; you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift given to us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf. – 2 Corinthians 1:6-11, WEB-BE

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written,
“For your sake we are killed all day long.
We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from God’s love, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 8:35-39, WEB-BE

The sick, the elderly, the handicapped and the dying teach us that weakness is a creative part of human living, and that suffering can be embraced with no loss of dignity. – Pope John Paul II

Our dignity does not come from our own strength or from our own power. It is not lost with sickness. It isn’t lost with poverty or persecution or even the insults of men. It isn’t lost with suffering or even death.

God gave us this dignity, the dignity of being made into His own image.

One day He is going to complete the good work He has begun in us and we will finally see Him. We will also know fully our great dignity of being His children.

Here on earth however, we suffer from our weaknesses and from the sins of others. We also suffer from our imperfect physical bodies and from various emotional and spiritual struggles. Many times, we suffer involuntarily. At times, we suffer for the sake of those we love. But through all these, we are assured, that for as long as we suffer with the love of God, we do not suffer in vain.

On the contrary, when we suffer with love, our dignity is raised, and we reach our true dignity as human beings created in the image of God. When we suffer in love, we become like Jesus Himself, who offered His own life in order to save many. Can there ever be a dignity greater than this?

Surely he has borne our sickness,
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
-Isaiah 53:4-5, WEB-BE

“God created through love and for love. God did not create anything except love itself, and the means to love. He created love in all its forms. He created beings capable of love from all possible distances. Because no other could do it, he himself went to the greatest possible distance, the infinite distance. This infinite distance between God and God, this supreme tearing apart, this agony beyond all others, this marvel of love, is the crucifixion.”- Simone Weil, Waiting for God