15 Reasons To Suffer With LOVE.

“Embrace the cross lovingly, whenever it comes, as the most precious token of love I can give you in this life.”
– Jesus to St. Margaret Mary

If we were more humble, we would never complain of suffering (except in the sense in which Our Lord complained in the Garden of Gethsemane). “Let us believe that these scourges of the Lord have happened for our amendment and not for our destruction.” Furthermore, let us consider that God also uses our sufferings – if only we bear them with love – to bring down an abundance of graces for others!

Suffering is a small price to pay considering that one serious sin merits eternal suffering. “They do not consider,” said Our Lady to St. Bridget of Sweden, “that the least little sin a man finds delight in is enough to damn him to an eternal torment [if he does not repent].” (We must not forget that Hell is only for those who die in unrepented mortal sin.) This consideration is mentioned so that we may humbly thank God in particular for the priceless grace of repentance, and for the grace of knowing the value – at least to a greater degree than many others – of suffering. God desires that we be happy with Him both here and hereafter. The cross is the means by which God purifies souls and leads them to Himself.

It is a great act of charity to console the suffering. Perhaps the following words will be of profit to someone you know who is suffering:

1. “When suffering is accepted with love, it is no longer suffering, but it is changed into joy.” – St. Therese

2. “… when suffering is joined to love, the proofs of love given through suffering are a true reparation [i.e. for sin] offered to God.” – Jesus to Sr. Mary of the Trinity

3. “Whenever a soul receives with faith and love any occasion of suffering, it is as if she received Me in her arms when taken down from the Cross.” – Jesus to Sr. Benigna Consolata

4. “Be not afflicted if I begin to abandon thee. Do not think it chastisement. It is truly My own Will in order to detach thee from
creatures and unite thee to Myself.” – Jesus to St. Gemma Galgani

5. “No sin of yours will come under my judgment if it has been expiated in this life through your penance.” – Jesus to St. Bridget

6. “The best penance is to have patience with the sorrows God permits.” – St. Peter Damian

7. “The Cross is the way to Paradise, but only when it is borne willingly.” – St. Paul of the Cross

8. “You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone.” – Jesus to St. Faustina

9.  “Affliction is always accompanied by Grace; Grace is proportionate to Suffering. The measure of My gifts is increased with the measure of trials.” – Jesus to St. Rose of Lima

10. ”O My daughter, how many would have abandoned Me if they had not been crucified.” – Jesus to St. Gemma Galgani

11. “Let us tell ourselves that every day, every hour, every instant of suffering borne with Jesus and for love of Him will be a new heaven [reward in Heaven] for all eternity, and a new glory given God for ever.” – Bl. Dom Columba Marmion

12. “My child, you canst do nothing more gratifying to Me than to submit patiently to all the tribulations that befall you.” – Jesus to St. Gertrude

13. “The cross is a gift too precious, and from it come many virtues.” – Jesus to St. Gemma Galgani

14. “Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory when it is displayed to all the world.” – 1 Peter 4:12-13

15. “O what inspiration there is in the Crucifix! … God … never commands us to do anything which he has not first practiced Himself…” – St. John Vianney

+++

“… should I then have deserved to go to hell in punishment of my sins, I entreat you, O my Lord to pardon me, and to be pleased to lead me to enjoy you eternally in heaven.”

– Venerable Fabrizio Dall’ Aste

Our Lord Weeps More for Sinners Than for His Own Passion and Death.

Our Lord revealed to Bl. Dina Belanger that if all religious souls would let Him act through them as He desires, all would be saved!

Jesus has an insatiable desire for our love.

But our love is merely a participation in God’s love.

It follows, then, that God desires to love us first, so that we may love Him!

Banish from your heart and mind any illusion that you can earn God’s love, or that you have nothing to offer Him – perhaps on account of your past sinfulness. This is surely a temptation. Whenever God asks for love, He first offers us His love! He redeemed even the most wretched sinners, because He desires our happiness. “The greatest gift you can make Me is to receive Me,” said Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Trinity.

With such unspeakable love in mind, let us reflect on the touching words of Jesus to Bl. Battista Varani:

‘”Another sorrow, which pierced My Heart continually, like a three-edged and poisoned blade, was the impiety and ingratitude of Judas, first My beloved disciple, then My wicked betrayer… Consider first the ingratitude of Judas, whom I chose for one of My apostles, whose sins I forgave, upon whom I conferred the power of working miracles, and whom I made the dispenser of the offerings made to Me. When I saw the design of betraying Me forming in his heart, I redoubled the proofs of My tenderness, to turn him from his criminal thoughts, but it was of no avail; nothing would touch his wicked heart. On the contrary, the more affection I showed him, the more he was hardened in his perfidious resolution. When, at the Last Supper, I performed the humble and touching ceremony of washing My disciples’ feet, My Heart could not contain itself; but I wept bitterly, and watered his polluted feet with My tears, for I said within Myself: “O Judas! what have I then done to you, that you should betray Me thus? O unhappy disciple! is this to be the last proof I shall ever be able to give of My love for you? O son of perdition! why dost thou leave Thy Father and Master? O Judas, if you would have thirty pieces of silver, why not go and ask them from My Mother thine; she would sell herself to free thee and Me from danger and death. Ah! ungrateful disciple, today I wash thy feet, and kiss them with so much love, and in a few hours thou wilt kiss My Face, to deliver Me up to My enemies. O dear and beloved son, what a return thou makest to One who weeps the loss of thee more than His own Passion and death, because for this He came into this world.

While My Heart was speaking thus, My tears watered his feet, but he saw them not, because I was kneeling before him, My Head bent down, and My long hair falling about My Face, so that he could not see My tearful countenance. But John, my beloved disciple, to whom I had revealed all the mysteries of My Passion during this sad Supper, observed My every action, saw My tears flow on the feet of the traitor, and understood that they proceeded from the tenderness of My love. When a father sees his only son about to die, he is eager to serve him, and says in his heart, “Farewell, my son, this is the last service I shall be able to render you.” Thus did I act towards Judas, when I washed and kissed his feet.

When I caressed and kissed them with tender compassion, John, perceiving with his eager heart My gestures and actions, was more dead than alive with wonder and admiration. When at length I approached to wash his feet, for his humility had made him take the last place, on seeing me stoop he could no longer contain himself, but as I knelt he threw his arms round My neck, and held me fast in a long embrace as if fainting, weeping and sobbing and saying in his heart, without uttering a sound, “O my dear Master! My Brother, my Lord and my God! how hast Thou had the courage to wash and kiss with Thy sacred Mouth the cursed feet of this infamous traitor…”

Let us humbly consider the truth that for the entirety of our lives, God has been in search of us. What He asks of us – that we keep His commandments and love Him above all else – is such a small thing in comparison with what He offers us. God is all-deserving of our love, our compassion, our talents, our will, our mind, because they are His gifts.

“Know, My daughter, that the pains I bore in My Heart were innumerable and infinite; for innumerable and infinite are the souls, my members, who tear themselves from Me by mortal sin, for each soul separates itself from Me, its Head and source of life, as often as it sins mortally.”

– Jesus to Blessed Battista Varani

“Do not offend Me any more. Love Me as I have always loved you. Love Me.”

– Jesus to St. Gemma Galgani

 

 

“Why do you fear death?” – Jesus to Sr. Mary

“Why do you fear death? Do you doubt Me?

(1) For your sins: see here is My mercy.

(2)For your cares, your anxieties, your desires: here is My Providence.

(3) For your weakness: here is My Omnipotence.

(4) It is My joy to give you hour by hour sufficient strength, to have you entirely dependent on My love.”

– Jesus to Sr. Mary of the Trinity

(I have inserted the numbers)

(1) St. John Vianney (Taken from his Catechism): “Some say, ‘I have done too much evil; the good God cannot pardon me.’ My children, this is a great blasphemy; it is putting a limit to the mercy of God, which has no limit – it is infinite. You may have done evil enough to lose the souls of a whole parish, and if you confess, if you are sorry for having done this evil, and resolve not to do it again, the good God will have pardoned you.”

“My mercy for fallen souls is limitless.” – Jesus to Sr. Josefa

(2) Garrigou-Lagrange (Taken from ‘The Three Ages of the Interior Life’): “We read of the just in the Book of Wisdom: ‘Though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality. Afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well rewarded: because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace He hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust He hath received them.’ Thus trial causes hope to grow, and hope does not deceive us, for God does not abandon those who trust Him. ‘No one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded.’ It is evident that the Lord will not refuse Himself to those who love Him, to those to whom He has already given His Son. . . . He has prepared eternal beatitude for those who love Him above all else.”

(3) “And when the enemy represents to us our weakness, let us say with the Apostle, ‘I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me’ (Phil. 4:13). Of myself I can do nothing; but I trust in God, that, by His grace, I shall be able to do all things…” – St. Alphonsus

 “The only way to make rapid progress along the path of divine love is to remain very little and put all our trust in almighty God.” -St. Therese

(4) “O My daughter, how many would have abandoned Me if they had not been crucified. The cross is a gift too precious, and from it come many virtues.”

– Jesus to St. Gemma Galgani (Born: March 12, 1878; Died: April 11, 1903)

 

A Remedy For Anxiety (Revelations to a privileged nun)

“No, there is not a single superfluous suffering in your life.”

– Jesus to Sr. Mary of the Trinity

When we suffer, let us be content to carry our cross out of love for God. This way “… your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” (John 6:20).

It is not within our power to free ourselves from all feelings of anxiety. Jesus Himself experienced such fear and anxiety that He sweat blood! What God asks of us is our love and our trust.

“Those who love Me much, have great confidence in Me… And notice, I respond at once by putting joy into the heart that honors Me with confidence.”

– Jesus to Sr. Mary of the Trinity

He knows what is best for us. If we place our trust in Him and humbly accept our cross (which is an efficacious means of converting sinners), then we can be sure that whatever state God leaves us in is for a greater good, and for His glory. Sometimes healing takes time, so we must be patient. We can be assured, however, that God will reward our faith (remember that growth in virtue is in itself a great reward).

Here are some instructions from Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Trinity about how to avoid anxiety:

“It is not sufficient to say: ‘My God, I have confidence in You!’ You must make the interior act of freeing yourself from all anxiety, and rest on My Heart like the Apostle St. John at the Last Supper – yes, like St. John, the Beloved Apostle. I await this confidence from every soul.”

“So many anxieties and shadows in your heart. Think of Me, of Me – perfect Beauty, Splendor, Peace, Life, Truth, Holiness – of Me, your God who loves you. Give Me your heart – your whole heart. And do you not also wish to give Me your life? I desire it, I have need of it. It is such a great thing to belong to Me. What does anything else matter to you? Be full of joy at belonging to Me. I want you to be altogether Mine.”

“Do not get agitated; do not be anxious. Everything passes away, except your God. I am order and perfect calm, being at the same time life and movement and action. To live My Life, rest silently in Me. I love you. Is that not enough to fill every one of your moments with the fullness of joy? I love you and desire that you should know it. Oh, if you knew how much I love you, My little child.”

“Rely on Me with closed eyes, without anxiety, content… yes like a babe sleeping in its mother’s arms. Are you not like babes carried in the arms of God? Who is kinder than I? You will see My care all through the hours, if you take notice.”

“I wish to live more in you. Let Me find you at every moment empty of the past, empty of anxiety for the future, empty of attachment to creatures, so that My Presence may take possession of you and that in every passing moment you may receive all My grace. Remain fixed in Me – like the little magnetized needle of the compass.”

“… all religion and all your happiness consist in a few words of the Gospel which it is sufficient to understand and to practice. ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Justice; and the rest will be added unto you.’ You encumber yourselves with so many anxieties. See Me within yourself; I am so near you, so close; you always seek too far away. And listen, and receive My grace. When a soul receives it with great joy, I give it to her in abundance. It is My joy to give. And you will never exhaust My riches. My gifts are inexhaustible and always new. “

“Anxiety [not the feeling] is a temptation in itself and also the source from and by which other temptations come… We must not fear fear.”

– St. Francis de Sales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The SUPREME Duty And Privilege Of Every Christian: To “… set fire to the world…”

“I want you to set fire to the world with this love of my Divine Heart, today extinguished in men’s hearts. Set fire! Set fire! I want to give my love to all men. I want to be loved by all. They do not accept it and do not love me. By you, I want this love to be kindled in all humanity…”

– Jesus to Bl. Alexandrina

Why were we created? So that we might know, love and serve God, and thereby save our souls and find everlasting happiness.

Why did God become man? So that we might know, love and serve God, and thereby save our souls and find everlasting happiness.

“To find Me, to know Me, to receive Me, then to come to Me -that is the only meaning of every life… I am the Alpha and Omega, your God and your All… How is it then that in so many lives, I am accepted and treated merely as something supplementary?”

– Jesus to Sr. Mary of the Trinity

Unfortunately, many neither know nor love God.

“Ah! If only they knew My Heart… mankind is ignorant of Its mercy and
goodness: that is My greatest sorrow.”

– Jesus to Sr. Josefa

We can help to change that!

Christians in particular have the great duty and privilege of converting sinners. How? Through love. Our love must extend to all because God desires to save all! Following the Saints, we are to pray for the grace to know and love God’s will; we must love our enemies, pray for sinners, and offer sacrifices for souls.

“The greatest charity is to take away souls from Satan and to bring them back to God!” 

– Saint Padre Pio

 “My daughter, I want to instruct you on how you are to rescue souls through sacrifice and prayer. You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone.”

– Jesus to St. Faustina

“In this matter, no sacrifice is too insignificant.”

– Jesus to St. Faustina

We are called to spread God’s love. We do this by leading holy lives.

 “LOVE IS SANCTITY. The more you love Me, the holier you will become.”

– Jesus to Sr. Consolata

Like Bl. Alexandrina, Jesus invites- nay, urges– us to love Him and our neighbour. Meditation on the Passion will help us to love our enemies, just as Christ loved us. Who, considering all Jesus has done for us, can have a bitter heart? Daily we must pray for humility!

God is a “consuming fire” of love. This love causes us to suffer at times, as we have to be purified from the darkness of sin and earthly attachments. Neverthless, we must not be discouraged.

  “The Lord is equally kind when He apportions affliction as when He gives consolations.”

– St. Francis de Sales

We should consider every suffering a mere trifle in comparison with what we have deserved. Thanks be to God! Also, we should offer to God our every difficulty- however small– for the love of God and for the salvation of souls: That means more souls who will be loving God for all eternity! God desires that we become saints, so that He can live again in us!

“Benigna, I cannot make thee a saint unless thou give me the key of thy will; but if thou give it to me, I can make thee not only a saint but a great saint.”

– Jesus to Sr. Benigna Consolata

 The more we are united to God’s will, the more He will live in us, and the more we will be filled with His dispositions: His love, His peace, His joy. Jesus referred to this as a “mystical incarnation” (to Conchita Cabrera), whereby Jesus once again lives in our hearts! In fact, certain privileged saints, such as St. Gertrude and St. Catherine, were given the Sacred Heart of Jesus with which to love Him!

How can we love Jesus with all our heart?

“My Benigna, thou canst never love Me with all thy heart, as I wish to be loved by thee, unless thou dost hate thyself* with all thy heart. Sacrifice thy personal interests and gratifications to the greater glory of God… Sinners hate Me; do thou love Me with all thy strength; sinners blaspheme My Holy Name; do thou praise Me; sinners banish Me from their memory; do thou keep Me ever present before thy mind, discarding every other thought. Let all thy actions bear the impress of Reparation and thou wilt console My Heart. Let thy life be a life of Love and Reparation. I wish to live in thee… I wish to see with thy eyes, to speak with thy mouth, to hear with thy ears, to walk with thy steps, to labor with thy hands.”

* “The remedy for pride is also to tell ourselves that there is in us something inferior to nothingness itself: the disorder of sin and its effects. As sinners, we deserve scorn and all humiliations; the Saints have thought so, and they certainly judged better than we” – Lagrange (Put simply: hate sin, disorder etc. Of course we must remember that God loves us infinitely! Do not misunderstand this point!)