Mother Cabrini on how to suffer

Mother Cabrini,
Patron Saint of Immigrants

But if you partake of the sufferings of Christ,

rejoice that when his glory shall be revealed,

you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

~1 Peter 4:13

Let us then be glad when an unexpected cross presents itself, and we are afflicted with pain. These are the choice fruits of the mystic vine, destined to bear inestimable merits for our souls. We you have to suffer, do not go about sighing like those who don't know its value!  Lift up your eyes and smile sweetly on what you suffer, which is like a field turning golden for the harvest. She who knows how to reap in this field will receive the reward. With gentle sweetness always unite your suffering with that of Jesus. Then your travail, suffered for Jesus and his divine Heart, will become as many droplets immersed in the immense ocean of his Passion.  
~St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Feast day November 13

Dear Mother Cabrini, help us to suffer sweetly for Jesus' sake. Amen.

The power and wisdom of God

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God...we proclaim Christ crucified...Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ~1 Cor 1:18, 23-24

He is calling you (cf. Jn 11:28)! He wants to take your life and join it to his. Let yourself be embraced by him! Gaze no longer upon your own wounds, gaze upon his. Do not look upon what still separates you from him and from others; look upon the infinite distance that he has abolished by taking your flesh, by mounting the Cross which men had prepared for him, and by letting himself be put to death so as to show you his love. In his wounds, he takes hold of you; in his wounds, he hides you. Do not refuse his Love! ~Pope Benedict XVI

My dear Jesus, I hear You calling me by name. I am afraid, but I cannot resist You. "Within Thy wounds, hide me!" Only there will I fully know the power and the wisdom of the Father's Eternal Love. Only there will I truly live no longer for myself but for You, crucified yet risen and alive for ever more. Amen! Alleluia!

Taking Up Our Cross

Let him take up his cross, the one that is his. Let this man or this woman, rarely to be found and worth more than the entire world (Prov. 31, 10-31), take up with joy, fervently clasp in his arms and bravely set upon his shoulders this cross that is his own and not that of another; his own cross, the one that My Wisdom designed for him in every detail of number, weight and measurement; his own cross whose four dimensions, its length, breadth, thickness and height (Eph. 3, 18), I very accurately gauged with My own hands; his own cross which all out of love for him I carved from a section of the very Cross I bore on Calvary; his cross, the grandest of all the gifts I have for My chosen ones on earth; his cross, made up in its thickness of temporal loss, humiliation, disdain, sorrow, illness and spiritual trial which My Providence will not fail to supply him with every day of his life; his cross, made up in its length of a definite period of days or months when he will have to bear with slander or be helplessly stretched out on a bed of pain, or forced to beg, or else a prey to temptation, dryness, desolation and many another mental anguish; his cross, made up in its breadth of hard and bitter situations stirred up for him by his relatives, friends or servants; his cross, finally, made up in its depth of secret sufferings which I will have him endure nor will I allow him any comfort from created beings, for by My order they will turn from him too and even join Me in making him suffer.

Let him carry it, and not drag it, not shoulder it off, not tighten it, nor hide it. Let him hold it high in hand, without impatience or peevishness, without voluntary complaint or grumbling, without dividing or softening, without shame or human respect. Let him place it on his forehead and say with St. Paul: "God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6, 14) Let him carry it on his shoulders, after the example of Jesus Christ, and make it his weapon to victory and the scepter of his empire (Is. 9, 16). Let him root it in his heart and there change it into a fiery bush, burning day and night with the pure love of God, without being consumed.

The cross: it is the cross he must carry for there is nothing more necessary, more useful, more agreeable and more glorious than suffering for Jesus Christ.

~St. Louis de Montfort in The Friends of the Cross

Dear Lord, with all my heart I thank you for my cross, "the grandest of all the gifts" you have for me on earth. Help me to embrace it lovingly and carry it gladly with you and for you, my King and my God. Amen.

Note: Above picture is of the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania.

The Sorrow of the World

For the sorrow of the world

has become blessed,

because it has been loved.

Behold the wood of the Cross

on which hung

the Salvation of the world.

from "Passion"

by Gertrude von Le Fort

The Way of the Holy Cross

If you carry your cross cheerfully, it will carry you, and bring you where you wish to go, to the place where there will be an end to the suffering which can never end on earth. If you carry it grudgingly you will make it a heavy burden, and feel its weight the more, and yet you must bear it all the same. And if you cast away one cross, you will certainly find another and perhaps a heavier cross.

Do you think you can escape what no mortal man ever yet failed to meet? Was ever any one of the saints without his cross and trial upon earth? Even Jesus Christ our Lord, as long as He lived, was never for one hour free from the anguish of His passion. For "it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, that He might enter into His glory." How then can you look for any other way than this royal way, the way of the holy cross?

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, Bk II, Ch XII

His Mother, First Martyr

On the Via Dolorosa and on Golgotha is his Mother, first Martyr. And with the heart of his Mother, to whom he consigned as his testament from the Cross every disciple and every man, we contemplate, with emotion, Christ's sufferings, learning from him obedience until death, even death on the Cross, learning from her to accept every man as our brother, to be with her near the innumerable crosses to which the Lord of glory is still unjustly nailed, not his glorious Body but the suffering limbs of his mystical body.

Pope John Paul II

Everything depends on the Cross

Thus you see everything depends upon the cross, and all our hope lies in dying on the cross. There is no way to life and to real peace of heart but the holy cross and of daily mortification. Go where you will, try what you will,you will not find a grander way, or a safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Arrange and order all your life as you like to think fit, still you will find that you will always have something to suffer, by your own choice, or by necessity, and so you will always find a cross. For either you will have bodily pain to bear or some trouble of the spirit.

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, Bk II, Ch XII

The Royal Road of the Holy Cross

Why then do you fear to take up the cross by which alone you can reach the crown? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is sure protection from enemies, in the cross is an abundance of heavenly delight, in the cross is courage, in the cross is gladness of heart, in the cross is all virtue, in the cross is the height of sanctity. There is no safety for the soul, no hope of everlasting life, but in the cross. Take up your cross, then, and follow Jesus, and you will enter into life eternal. He has gone before you carrying His cross, and died for you upon the cross that you, too, might have strength to carry your cross, and be willing to die upon the cross. For if you die with Him, you will also live with Him; if you have been a share in His suffering, you will share also in His glory.

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, Bk II, Ch XII

On the Fewness of the Lovers of the Cross

Jesus finds now many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few that will carry His cross. He finds may desirous of consolation, few of trial: many sharers of His repasts, few of His fasting. All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for Him. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to the draining of the chalice of His Passion. Many revere His miracles, but few follow His shameful cross. Many love Jesus as long as troubles do not come near them; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive consolation from Him. But if Jesus hide Himself, and leave them for a little while, they begin to complain, and are very much cast down.

But those who love Jesus for Himself, and not for any consolation they hope to draw from Him, bless Him as much amid every kind of trial and anguish of heart as when they enjoy the greatest delight. And if he should never grant them any consolation, still they would always praise Him and give Him thanks.

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, Bk II, Ch XI

The Imitation of Christ is the first spiritual book I ever read. My dear father gave it to me when I was in high school back in the sixties. Those were the days when we Catholics didn't read the Bible, but here was a book that quoted Scripture passages liberally on every page. I was thrilled! "Thy words were found, and I ate them, and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart" (Jer 15:16). Thanks to Daddy, I now had two rich sources of spiritual sustenance to feed my hungering soul -- Scripture and The Imitation. I still read The Imitation almost every day and continue to be nourished and enlightened. Over the next few days I will post some selections from this magnificent spiritual classic. Meanwhile, today I pray that, through the grace of God, we will be among those who love Jesus for Himself and, as St. Francis de Sales puts it, seek the Giver of consolations rather than consolations themselves.