From Light to Darkness

     “He came to His own, and His own received Him not.” John 1: 11

     I was suffering! Suffering for Our Lord and suffering for myself, or so I thought!

Shaken From My Sleep

      “O my God, You and You alone are all wise and knowing! You know, You have determined everything that will happen to us from first to last. You have ordered things in the wisest way, and You know what will be my lot year by year until I die. You know how long I have to live. You know how I shall die. You have precisely ordained everything, sin excepted. Every event of my life is the best for me that could be for it comes from You. You bring me on year by year, by your wonderful Providence, from youth to age, with the most perfect wisdom, and with the most perfect love.”       

                                                                               St. John Henry Cardinal Newman

     Holy Scripture confirms this truth: “You have seen my actions; in Your book they are all written; my days were limited before one of them existed” (Psalm 139: 16).

TRUST ME

     “Do you believe that I am the Son of God? And do you believe that I died for all men and women and that I rose from the dead? Then why do you continue to be distracted and anxious about your loved ones? Do they not also belong to me? Would I refuse to work in their lives just as I work in yours? I have not put you in charge of saving them. Your task is to love, to forgive, to pray for them and to turn them over to Me. Come closer to Me yourself and I will do the rest. TRUST  Me!"                      Author Unknown

     As I entered our adoration chapel, I saw a dear friend. We hadn’t seen one another for a little while because she’d been away, visiting family. No one but Jesus was in the chapel, so I bent down to give her a long overdue hug and welcomed her back.

     I sat next to her, and she asked me about my cares and concerns. When she was away, I had texted her, to ask for prayers: I was experiencing spiritual suffering. She is a mighty intercessor, and I knew her prayers would make a difference. Although I was uniting my suffering for my special concerns with Jesus, it was still very difficult. 

Love's Clock

     “The distance separating Our Lord from the house where Lazarus lived was about a day’s journey . . . in all it would have been four days since He received the news. God’s delays are mysterious; sorrow is sometimes prolonged for the same reason for which it is sent. God may abstain for the moment from healing, not because Love does not love, but because Love never stops loving, and a greater good is to come from the woe. Heaven’s clock is different from ours.”          Bishop Fulton J. Sheen


     Why does God allow suffering? Why does He delay in answering our prayers, or at times, appear not to even hear them? Those were probably the thoughts of Martha and Mary when they contacted Jesus and He failed to come to heal their brother Lazarus. Lazarus was already dead four days by the time Jesus arrived.

One of His Favorites

     “Yes, my heart’s dear one, Jesus is here with His Cross. Since you are one of His favorites, He wants to make you into His likeness; why be afraid that you will not have the strength to carry this cross without a struggle? On the way to Calvary, Jesus did indeed fall three times and you, poor child, would like to be different from your Spouse? Would you rather not fall a hundred times if necessary to prove your love to Him by getting back up with even more strength than before your fall!                                                                                                                                                 St. Therese of Lisieux



     Being one of our dear sweet Jesus’ favorites, He wants to make you into His very likeness: carrying your cross is part of the package. The cross is the instrument that was used by our Lord to bring about our salvation. When we accept our cross, it will transform our suffering and be a means of elevating and sanctifying our souls.

Transformed into Glory

     Saint Matthew’s Gospel (Mt. 16 vs. 21-22 & 17 vs. 1-9), brings out the close connection between the Transfiguration and the Passion of Jesus. The Divine Master wished to teach His disciples in this way that it was impossible -- for Him as well as for them – to reach the glory of the Transfiguration without passing through suffering. It was the same lesson that He would give later to the two disciples at Emmaus: “Ought not Christ to have suffer these things and so to enter into His glory?” (Lk. 24 vs. 26). What has been disfigured by sin cannot regain its original supernatural beauty except by way of purifying suffering. Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.



     When sin entered the world, life as we would have known it was changed forever! Sin brought death, and with it, hardship and pain. Suffering was something that would now be a part of man’s life, and although man had walked away from God, God would not abandon man. He promised to send a Savior to restore to us what had been lost.

Thy Will Be Done - Part 2

     After the preliminary questions, Jonathan was taken back to the examining room. I pulled out my rosaries and began to pray, one mystery after the other, as the medical team went about trying to determine just what was wrong. I also sent out an SOS to all of my prayer warriors to begin to storm heaven!

Who, Lord, Do You Say That I Am? -- Part 3

     I was back to my original question. Lord, who do You say that I am? If I’m not Your servant, than who am I? Like Jacob, I did a lot of wrestling with God. Through much pain, suffering, and letting go of the burdens I had placed upon myself, the answer finally did come. I was not just God’s servant, but He revealed to me that I am His Daughter, who happens to get to serve Him. He takes all my effort as a gift. He knows that the results of my efforts are not in my control. He reminded me that He is God and I am not. He wants me to trust Him with my children, because He loves them even more than I do. He helped me recall how He has been with me on my journey through life and that I did not always choose as He would have preferred, nevertheless, He was with me in spite of my choices. He has continued to guide and accompany me on my journey.