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
Find hope in your darkest hour.
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