In a neighboring parish, there was a
little boy in bed, covered with sores,
very ill and very miserable. I said to
him, “My poor little child you are
suffering very much.” He answered me,
“No sir, today I do not feel the pain
I had yesterday, and tomorrow I shall
not suffer from the pain I have now.”
27
When the Good God sends us crosses,
we resist, we complain, we murmur
and we are so adverse to whatever
contradicts us that we want to be
always in a box of cotton, but we ought
to be put into a box of thorns! It is by
the C ross that we will go to Heaven.
Illness, temptations and troubles are
so many crosses which will take us to
Heaven. The good God does not require
of us the martyrdom of the body; He
requires only the martyrdom of the
heart and the will. Our Lord is our
Model. Let us take up the cross and
follow Him Who has gone before us.
The cross is the ladder to Heaven! How
sweet it is to die, when we have lived
on the cross! We ought to run after
crosses as the miser runs after money.
Nothing but crosses will reassure us
on the Day of Judgement. When this
day shall come, we will be happy in our
misfortunes, proud in our humiliations
and rich in our sacrifices. If someone
said to you, “I should like to become
rich, what must I do?” You would
answer him, you must labor. In order
to get to Heaven, we must suffer!
When we have no crosses, we are arid:
if we bear our crosses with resignation,
we feel a joy, a happiness and a
sweetness ... it is the beginning of Heaven.
The Cross gave peace to the world; it
must bring peace to our hearts. All our
miseries come from not loving the
Cross. Fear of crosses increases them.
Nothing makes us more like Our Lord
than carrying His Cross. All pains are
sweet when we suffer in union with
Our Lord. The Cross is the gift that
Our Lord makes to His friends. How
beautiful it is to offer ourselves every
morning in sacrifice to the Good God
and to accept everything in expiation
for our sins! We must never question
from whence crosses come: They come
from God! It is always God who is
giving us this way of proving our love
for Him. One of the greatest gifts in
Heaven’s treasury, is an understanding
of the Way of the Cross, a love for trials
and sufferings. Ah, if we could just
spend a week in Heaven, we should
understand the value of our moments
in suffering!
“To Suffer with Christ, is to Reign!”
St. Térèse of Lisieux
“I know
someone
who
knows
how to
accept the
cross, and
a heavy
cross and
to bear it
with love!
It is Mlle.
Jaricot.”
Words of St. Jean Vianney when he
gave this cross to Pauline Jaricot.