Important reminder in suffering...

St. John of the Cross:

“If our life does not consist in imitating the crucified, it has no value.”

St. John of the Cross: “JESUS IMPOSES SUFFERING ON US ACCORDING TO THE MEASURE OF OUR LOVE” (Take it as a compliment J ).

St. Therese of Lisieux:

“When we feel no courage or strength for the practice of virtue, it is really a grace. It is time to lay the axe to the root of the tree, relying upon JESUS ALONE. If we fall, an act of love (just ONE ACT of LOVE) will set all right and Jesus smiles.”  J

“You know well that our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them. What then have we to fear?

            

    “It costs our heart’s blood to give Him what He demands. And what a blessing that it does cost it! What happiness, to bear our crosses feebly…! I, who am but a little grain of sand will set to work without joy, without courage, without strength –and these incapabilities (incapacities) make the task easier for me. (Those are the places God can enter in with His grace). I want to labor only with Love.”

“Let us suffer, if we must, with bitterness, without courage. Jesus must have suffered in sadness, would that our souls want to suffer at all times without sadness? We want to suffer generously and nobly. We want to never fall. What an illusion!” (Jesus fell three times!)

            “Being really brave means to long for the cross in the midst of fear, while as it were fighting against fear (with Love and fiat) as Jesus did in the Garden of Olives.”

         “Jesus, the Divine Hero, has felt all our weaknesses and shuddered at the sight of the bitter chalice –that very chalice He had so burningly desired.”

John Paul II: “When confronted with an abyss of evil, the ONLY response is an ABYSS OF LOVE.”

Catherine Doherty in her book “Holy Fools” says: “Crucified people speak –but with rusty voices… in order to speak the way God wants you to, you must be crucified on the other side of His cross. Then you will speak. You won’t say much. Two crucified people don’t speak easily. But what they say remains in the hearts of men.”

"If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.” (1 Cor 13:1-8)

St. John of the Cross: 
“And at the end of life we will ONLY be judged on Love…”