Daily Meditations for Those Who Have Taken Up Their Cross
Christ does not explain in the abstract the reasons for suffering, but before all else he says: “Follow me! Come! Take part through your suffering in this work of saving the world, a salvation achieved through my suffering! Through my cross.”
St. John Paul II
The Lord loads us and sets us free from our load, for when he bestows a cross on one of his chosen ones, he strengths that soul to such an extent that by bearing the weight of his cross he is relieved of it. – St. Pio of Pietrelcina No one would complain about […]
“Having passed the second step, the soul reaches out to the third—that is—to the Mouth, where she finds peace from the terrible war she has been waging with her sin. On the first step, then, lifting her feet from the affections of the earth, the soul strips herself of vice; on the second she fills […]
Amen, amen I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
John 16:20-23
Images by © Michael Bartkoski