Jesus To St. Gemma Galgani on Suffering

Jesus says to St. Gemma Galgani: "When I shall be a spouse of blood to you, I will love you, but you must be as one crucified. Prove your love for Me as I have proved My love for you; and do you know how? -By suffering pains and crosses without number. You must consider yourself honoured when I treat you thus, and when I lead you through thorny and sorrowful paths. It is with My permission that the Devil torments you, that the world fills you with disgust, that the persons dearest to you cause you affliction. ... And you, My daughter, must think of only one thing during this time, that is, of exercising great virtues. Keep on the path of the Divine will, and humble yourself, and be convinced that if I nail you to the Cross, I love you."

"My daughter "-Jesus said to her- "if you truly love Me, you will love Me even in darkness. Embrace the Cross, My daughter, and be certain that whilst you are satisfying your desire of suffering you are satisfying My heart; and remember, the more bitter the Cross seems to your heart, the more agreeable it is to Mine."

St. Bernadette on Suffering

"My own concerns no longer concern me. From now on I must belong entirely to God, and God alone. Never to myself. Why have I come [to the convent], if not to love Our Lord with all my heart. O Jesus and Mary, grant that all my consolation in this world may be to love you, serve you and suffer for sinners.

O Jesus, teach me to understand how exclusive is heavenly Love. Continually dying to myself, peacefully supporting trials, I work, I suffer, and I wish to have no other witness but His Heart. He who is not prepared to suffer all for the Beloved and to do His Holy Will in all things is not worthy of the beautiful name of Friend.

From here on earth, Love cannot live without suffering. It is through loving the cross that we discover His Heart, for divine Love never lives without suffering. I want my whole life to be inspired by love. He who loves, does all things easily, or, if he suffers, he suffers bravely. Why is suffering necessary? Because on earth, pure love cannot exist without suffering. O Jesus, Jesus, I no longer feel my cross when I think of yours!"

- Saint Bernadette Soubirous

 October 1873

Diary of St. Faustina...Staying with Jesus in every moment

+ 485  I accept joy or suffering, praise or humiliation with the same disposition. I remember that one and the other are passing. What does it matter to me what people say about me? I have long ago given up everything that concerns my person. My name is host-or sacrifice, not in words but in deeds, in the emptying of myself and in becoming like You on the Cross, O good Jesus, my Master! 

+ 486  Jesus, when You come to me in Holy Communion, You who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit have deigned to dwell in the little heaven of my heart, I try to keep You company throughout the day, I do not leave You alone for even a moment. Although I am in the company of other people or with our wards, my heart is always united to Him. When I am asleep I offer Him every beat of my heart; when I awaken I immerse myself in Him without saying a word. When I awaken I adore the Holy Trinity for a short while and thank God for having deigned to give me yet another day, that the mystery of the incarnation of His Son may once more be repeated in me, and that once again His sorrowful Passion may unfold before my eyes. I then try to make it easier for Jesus to pass through me to other souls. I go everywhere with Jesus; His presence accompanies me everywhere. 

Diary of St. Faustina...Sufferings united with Jesus and talking to Him our Creator

+ 801 Today, I still managed to pay a short visit to the Lord [in the Eucharist] before going to bed. My spirit was immersed in Him as in its only treasure. My heart rested a while near the Heart of my Spouse. I received light as to how I should behave toward those around me, and then I returned to my solitude. The doctor is taking good care of me; all those around me are very kind to me. 

+ 802 December 10, [1936]. I got up earlier today and made my meditation before Holy Mass. Holy Mass is at six o'clock here. After Holy Communion my spirit was drowned in the Lord as in the sole object of its love. I felt absorbed by His omnipotence. When I came back to my private room, I felt sick and had to lie down at once. The sister [150] brought me some medication, but I felt bad all day. In the evening, I tried to make a Holy Hour, but I could not do so; all I could do was unite myself with the suffering Jesus. 


+ 803 My room is next to the men's ward. I didn't know that men were such chatterboxes. From morning till late at night, there is talk about various subjects. The women's ward is much quieter. It is women who are always blamed for this; but I have had occasion to be convinced that the opposite is true. It is very difficult for me to concentrate on my prayer in the midst of these jokes and this laughter. They do not disturb me when the grace of God takes complete possession of me, because then I do not know what is going on around me. 


+ 804 My Jesus, how little these people talk about You. They talk about everything but You, Jesus. And if they talk so little [about You], it is quite probable that they do not think about You at all. The whole world interests them; but about You, their Creator, there is silence. Jesus, I am sad to see this great indifference and ingratitude of creatures. O my Jesus, I want to love You for them and to make atonement to You, by my love. 

The Saints on Suffering.......

As iron is fashioned by fire and on the anvil, so in the fire of suffering and under the weight of trials, our souls receive that form which our Lord desires them to have.
--St. Madeline Sophie Barat

If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of great holiness which He desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings. The flame of Divine Love never rises higher than when fed with the wood of the Cross, which the infinite charity of the Savior used to finish His sacrifice. All the pleasures of the world are nothing compared with the sweetness found in the gall and vinegar offered to Jesus Christ. That is, hard and painful things endured for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ.
--Saint Ignatius of Loyola

'When it is all over you will not regret having suffered; rather you will regret having suffered so little, and suffered that little so badly.'
--St. Sebastian Valfre

"I do not desire to die soon, because in Heaven there is no suffering. I desire to live a long time because I yearn to suffer much for the love of my Spouse."
--St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

You will be consoled according to the greatness of your sorrow and affliction; the greater the suffering, the greater will be the reward. 
--St. Mary Magdalen de'Pazzi

For my heart is always with Him, day and night it thinks unceasingly of its heavenly and divine Friend, to whom it wants to prove its affection. Also within it arises this desire: not to die, but to suffer long, to suffer for God, to give Him its life while praying for poor sinners.
--Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity

Diary of St. Faustina....the Promise for Those Who Suffer Like Jesus..

At the same time, I saw a certain person [father Sopocko] and, in part, the condition of his soul and the ordeals God was sending him. His sufferings were of the mind and in a form so acute that I pitied him and said to the Lord, “why do you treat him like that?” and the Lord answered, for the sake of his triple crown. and the Lord also gave me to understand what unimaginable glory awaits the person who resembles the suffering Jesus here on earth.

That person will resemble Jesus in His glory. The Heavenly Father will recognize and glorify our soul to the extent that He sees in us a resemblance to His Son. I understood that this assimilation into Jesus is granted to us while we are here on earth. I see pure and innocent souls upon whom God has exercised His justice; these souls are the victims who sustain the world and who fill up what is lacking in the Passion of Jesus. They are not many in number. I rejoice greatly that God has allowed me to know such souls.

Diary of St. Faustina.....on feeling the Suffering of Others

Words from St. Faustina in her Diary

"I feel tremendous pain when I see the sufferings of my neighbours. All my neighbours' sufferings reverberate in my own heart; I carry their anguish in my heart in such a way that it even physically destroys me. I would like all their sorrows to fall upon me, in order to relieve my neighbour" (Diary, p. 365).

Reflection:  Lord help us not to forget the sufferings of others, especially those closest to us.  Help us to build a society of love and mercy and to show love even to those who treat us badly.  Lord help us to forgive ourselves for not loving those who suffer, and help us now to start again and ask for the gift of Your love so that we may share this great love with our fellow human beings. 

Diary of St. Faustina on Saving Souls through suffering......

Jesus added: “When I was dying on the Cross, I was not thinking about Myself, but about poor sinners, and I prayed for them to My Father. I want your last moments to be completely similar to Mine on the Cross. There is but one price that souls are bought, and that is suffering united to My suffering on the Cross. Pure love understands these words; carnal love will never understand them.” (#324)


Reflection:  Lord Jesus, help us to remember what You did for us, and help us never to complain but to unite our own sufferings with Yours for the salvation of our own souls and also for the sake of others. 

Mercy and Forgiveness - Bearing Suffering with Joy and Thankfulness

The Divine Mercy is all about Gods mercy which we will never understand or fathom. I often ask myself how merciful and forgiving I am.  It is something I need to improve vastly in my life.  I can only do it with Gods help and grace.  When we are hurt, it is not easy always to forgive completely, perhaps we can still hold onto that hurt in our hearts.  But we have to let them go, and let God heal those wounds and allow Him to help us to forgive.  Nurturing wounds only harms us more, causes bitterness and maybe even sickness.  One of the ways I find helpful in forgiving and letting things go is to thank God in all circumstances.  Because God is in control.  Yes even in the midst of the most awful things we must thank God  with our willpower even though our emotions may cry out against us which they often can.  Many of the Saints testify to this as does St. Faustina herself. 

Diary - St. Faustina   -  Notebook 3

1151 + When pain overwhelms my soul,

And the horizon darkens like night,

And the heart is torn with the torment of suffering,

Jesus Crucified, You are my strength.

When the soul, dimmed with pain,

Exerts itself in battle without respite,

and the heart is in agony and torment,

Jesus Crucified, You are the hope of my salvation.

And so the days pass,

As the soul bathes in a sea of bitterness,

And the heart dissolves in tears,

Jesus Crucified, You shine for me like the dawn.

And when the cup of bitterness brims over,

And all things conspire against her,

And the soul goes down to the Garden of Olives,

Jesus Crucified, in You is my defense.

When the soul, conscious of its innocence,

Accepts these dispensations from God,

The heart can then repay hurts with love.

Jesus Crucified, transform my weakness into omnipotence.

1152    It is no easy thing to bear sufferings joyfully, especially those which are unmerited. Fallen nature rebels, and although the intellect and will are above suffering, because they are able to do good to those who inflict suffering on them, nevertheless the emotions raise a lot of noise and, like restless spirits, attack the intellect and will. But when they see they cannot do anything by themselves, they quiet down and submit to the intellect and will. Like some kind of hideousness, they rush in and stir up a row, bent on making one obey them alone so long as they are not curbed by the intellect and will.