A Year with the Saints – April

When it is our lot to suffer pain, trials, or ill-treatment, let us turn our eyes upon what Our Lord suffered, which will instantly render our sufferings sweet and supportable. However sharp our griefs may be they will seem but flowers in comparison with His thorns.—-St. Francis de Sales Count Elzearius received many insults…

 If you look at the rod of Moses lying on the ground, it is a frightful serpent; if you look at it in the hand of Moses, it is a wand of power. It is thus with tribulations. Consider them in themselves, and they are horrors; consider them in the will of God, and…

If we should regard tribulations with the eye of a Christian, and wholly clear from our minds those mists of worldly wisdom, which oppose the rays of Faith, and do not allow them to penetrate to the depths of our souls; how fortunate should we consider ourselves in being calumniated, and regarded not only…

Whoever aspires to perfection must beware of saying, “I was right. They did that to me without reason.” If you are not willing to bear any cross which is not given you according to reason, perfection is not for you.~St. Teresa When Brother Egidius of Tarentum, a Franciscan lay-brother, was roughly treated by his…

 Learn, my Sisters, to suffer something for the love of God, without letting everyone know it.~St. Teresa On a Good Friday, the venerable Father Daponte asked Our Lord the favor of giving him a share in His sufferings. He answered by sending him fearful pains for the rest of his life, which he received…

In this life there is no Purgatory, but either Paradise or Hell. He who bears tribulations with patience, has Paradise; he who does not, Hell.~St. Philip Neri A prisoner at the bar once called for a Jesuit Father, and said to him: “Father, I wish you to know that I, too, was once of…

If any house should be found where there was no monk who was troublesome and of a bad disposition, it would be well to look for one, and to pay him at a high rate for the great good that results from this evil when judiciously managed.~St. Bernard When St. Philip Neri was living…

 Do not be vexed at the contradictions you meet in ordinary intercourse, for they give an opportunity to practice the most precious and amiable virtues, which Our Lord has recommended to us. Believe me that true virtue is no more reared in outward repose, than good fish in the stagnant water of a swamp.…

 The Lord sends us tribulation and infirmities to give us the means of paying the immense debts we have contracted with Him. Therefore, those who have good sense receive them joyfully, for they think more of the good which they may derive from them than of the pain which they experience on account of…

He has not true patience who is willing to suffer only what he pleases, and from whom he pleases. The truly patient man does not regard the length nor the kind of his sufferings, not yet the person who makes him suffer—-whether he be a superior, an equal, or an inferior; whether he be…