It is a penance to work, to give oneself to others, to endure the pinpricks of community living. One would certainly say on many occasions: Give me a good, thorough, frank, outgoing war, rather than the sneak attacks, stabs in the back, sparring, detracting, defaming, hand-to-hand jockeying for position that go on in offices and "good works" of all kinds, another and miserably petty kind of war. Saint Paul said that he "died daily." This too is penance, to be taken cheerfully, joyfully... So let us rejoice in our own petty sufferings and thank God we have a little penance to offer, in this holy season. ~from By Little and By Little: The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day (quoted in "40 Days to a new you" at US Catholic)
Dear Lord, there they are again, those small crosses: "our own petty sufferings...a little penance to offer." Nothing grand or exciting here -- except for Your love, by which You have fashioned each one of my crosses just for me. Thank You, my Jesus, for all of them! Amen.
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