Trials and Tribulations

 Trials and tribulations offer us a chance to make reparation for our past faults and sins. On such occasions the Lord comes to us like a physician to heal the wounds left by our sins. Tribulation is the divine medicine. 

 
~ St. Augustine of Hippo

 

Officium Angelorum (con textos en latín y traducción)

St. John of the Cross: Better Than Working Miracles

Suffering for God is better than working miracles.

- St. John of the Cross

St. John Chrysostom: Prayers of Saints

The prayers of the saints have mighty power to help our need... let us call upon them, for they can be bolder of speech in death than when they lived. 

 - St. John Chrysostom

St. John Paul II: May your suffering become redeeming love

At this moment I would like to express the deep sympathy that I feel for each of you, and all my understanding for the sickness you carry in your body and your spirit; I would like to speak with you one by one to instill in you comfort and encouragement.

Your life as handicapped persons constitutes a great trial; it is a trial for you above all, but also for your parents, for those who love you, and for those who wonder why this infirmity?
In fact, your ordeal is also a mystery.

The Lord does not ask us to close our eyes in the face of infirmity. It is very real, and we must have a clear knowledge of it. He asks us to look more deeply, to believe that in these suffering bodies beats not only human life with all its dignity and its rights but also, by virtue of baptism, the divine life, the marvelous life of the children of God. If to the external eyes of men you appear weak and infirm, before God you are great and luminous in your existence.

There is yet another important reality that Jesus reveals to us.

In human society, powerful, cultivated people occupy the positions of authority and are more visible; in the Kingdom of God, on the other hand, the opposite happens - the first and the greatest, Jesus tells us, are the children, the weak, the poor, the suffering. The ways of God are disturbing to mankind. St. Paul says: "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong."

This truth, which leaves us bewildered, becomes comprehensible if we look at the example of Jesus. Jesus was not content with revealing to us the mystery of suffering. He gave us the most convincing answer by taking our weaknesses upon himself, becoming the Man of sorrow who is acquainted with suffering.

When we ask God, then: Why must this innocent suffer? God in turn, asks us a question: Do you not see me in your brother who suffers? And what will you do for me and for him?

- St. John Paul II

John Paul II: Your Suffering Elevates the World

John Paul II: Your Suffering Elevates the World

I call on you to entrust your anguish to God the Father and to Christ, through Mary; to ask of Him - more than resignation, and even more than courage for your struggle - the grace of love and hope. Look at the Cross of Christ with faith: although it is the instrument of immense suffering, it is above all the sign of immense love, and the open door to Resurrection, which is the ultimate response of the God of love to His chosen Son.

May you offer this handicap of yours together with Christ, and enter into redemption: for your salvation, for the progress of the whole Church, for the graces of conversion that our world needs! Remain faithful to prayer. Try to remain open to others, without turning in on yourselves. Others have a lot to gain from your experience as sick people and as believers. Often, your ordeal has enabled you to acquire an outlook on existence and what is truly valuable, and gain a new degree of patience, of courage, of solidarity, of serenity at the prospect of death - in contrast with the anxiety of those around you - and a mysterious union with God. To all this you can bear witness, making manifest the promise of Jesus: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Even in the silence of prayer, and confined to your bed, you are in communion with the whole world, in order to take part in redemption: your prayer and your offering elevate the world.

~ Pope St. John Paul II

Belgium

May 21, 1985

St. Clare of Assisi Wisdom

We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.
If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing.
Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather
it means becoming the image of the beloved,
an image disclosed through transformation. This means
we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.

St. Clare of Assisi

 

 

St. Bonaventure: Voice of the Heart

When we pray, the voice of the heart
must be heard more
than that proceeding from the mouth.

St. Bonaventure

 

St. Maximilian Kolbe: Queen Even Of God's Heart

Prayer is powerful beyond limits when we turn to the Immaculata 
who is queen even of God's heart. 

St. Maximilian Kolbe

 

 

 

 

St. Bernadette Soubirous: Courage Through Prayer

Courage, my soul,
through prayer we can do all that is asked of us.
The Heart of Jesus is there:
let us knock.

St. Bernadette Soubirous

 

 

 

 

Eucharistic Adoration As Spiritual Weapon

Listen: There are two things the Devil is deathly afraid of: fervent Communions and frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament. 

Do you want Our Lord to grant you many graces? Visit him often. 

Do you want Him to grant you only a few? Visit Him only seldom. 

Do you want the Devil to attack you? Rarely visit the Blessed Sacrament. 

Do you want the Devil to flee from you? Visit Jesus often.

Do you want to overcome the Devil? Take refuge at Jesus’ feet. 

Do you want to be overcome by the Devil? Give up visiting Jesus. 

Visiting the Blessed Sacrament is essential, my dear boys, if you want to overcome the Devil. Therefore, make frequent visits to Jesus. If you do that, the Devil will never prevail against you. 

- St. John Bosco

 

 

St. Alphonsus Liguori: Today

Today God invites you to do good;
do it therefore today.
Tomorrow you may not have time, or
God may no longer call you to do it.

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

 

St. Therese of Lisieux: A Source of Merit!

Do not imagine that love can be found without suffering, for we carry with us our human nature; and yet, what a source of merit it is!

St. Therese of Lisieux

St. Therese of Lisieux: Furnace of Love

I cherish the hope that one day Thou wilt swoop down upon me and carry me up until I am lost, a willing victim, in the fiery heart of the furnace of Love.

-St. Therese of Lisieux

 

 

 

St. Augustine: The Truth!

People hate the truth
for the sake of whatever it is they love more than the truth.
They love truth when it shines warmly upon them
and hate it
when it rebukes them.

St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Gemma Galgani: If You Really Want to Love

If you really want to love Jesus, first
learn to suffer, because
suffering teaches you to love.

St. Gemma Galgani

 

 

 

St. Vincent de Paul: Why Trials and Afflictions?

God sends us trials and afflictions
to exercise us in patience and
teach us sympathy with the sorrows of others.

St. Vincent de Paul

 

 

 

Our Lady and the Three Dresses

Many centuries ago, three young nuns lived together in a convent. Day after day, they took their meals together, they went to chapel together, and they prayed and sang together.

One day, their priest-confessor advised them that, as a preparation for the feast of the purification of Mary, they should recite the whole Rosary every day for forty days. The three nuns obediently complied.

On the night before that holy feast day, the Heavenly Mother appeared to the three nuns as they gathered in the choir. To the first of these three sisters she handed a rich garment, embroidered with gold. Holy Mary thanked her and blessed her.

She then handed to the second nun a much simpler garment, and also thanked her. Noticing the difference in the two garments, the second sister asked, "Oh Lady, why have you brought my sister a richer garment?" Mary Most Holy lovingly replied, "Because she has clothed me more richly with her prayers than you have done."

Mary then approached the third nun with a canvas garment. Being an observant young lady, this sister at once asked pardon for the half-hearted way in which she had prayed her rosaries.

A full year had passed when all three fervently prepared for the same feast, each saying her Rosary with great devotion. On the evening preceding the festival, Mary appeared to them in glory, and said to them: "Be prepared, for tomorrow you shall come to paradise."

The following morning dawned, full of promise. Each nun wondered if this would be her last day in this vale of tears. When evening came, would they retire to their modest cells once more, or did Holy Mary have something else in store for them?

The sisters related to their confessor what had occurred, and received communion in the morning. At the hour of compline (evening prayers) they saw again the most holy Virgin, who came to take them with her. Amid the songs of angels, one after the other sweetly expired.

From the Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

 

 

 

St. Pio of Pietrelcina: We Must Not Stop!

We must not stop doing good
even if it scandalizes the Pharisees.

St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

St. Hilary of Poitiers: No Matter How Sinful

No matter how sinful one may have been,
if he has devotion to Mary,
it is impossible that he be lost.

St. Hilary of Poitiers

 

 

 

St. Ignatius of Loyola: Though in Desolation

Though in desolation
we must never change our former resolutions,
it will be very advantageous to intensify
our activity against the desolation.
We can insist more
upon prayer, upon meditation, and on much examination of ourselves.
We can make an effort in a suitable way to do some penance.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

 

 

 

St. Therese of Lisieux: I Will Sing!

I will sing even when I must pick my flowers amid thorns. The longer and sharper the thorns are, the sweeter my song will sound.

~St. Therese of Lisieux

St. Alphonsus Liguori Quotation

When the devil
wishes to make himself master of a soul, he
seeks to make it give up devotion to Mary.

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

St. Francis of Assisi: Your Deeds

The deeds you do may be
the only sermon some persons will hear today.

St. Francis of Assisi

St. Teresa of Avila: Detachment

Detachment, if practiced perfectly, includes the other two necessary virtues, love of others and true humility.

~St. Teresa of Avila

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection: Little Things

We can do little things for God.

~Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

St. Teresa of the Andes: Infinite Horizons of Love

When a soul gives herself wholly to God, He manifests Himself by letting the soul discover infinite horizons of love that will unite her most closely to Him.

~St. Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

St. John of the Cross: An Altar

The soul in which God alone dwells has no other function than that of an altar on which God is adored in praise and love.

~St. John of the Cross

St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi: In Prayer

... in prayer God teaches the soul, and through prayer the soul detaches itself from created things and unites itself to God.

~St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi

St. John of the Cross: God Ordains All

Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you will draw out love.

~St. John of the Cross