If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He has great designs for you, and that He certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat Him yourself to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the cross, which Christ used for His own great sacrifice of boundless charity.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
To suffer and to be happy although suffering, to have one’s feet on the earth, to walk on the dirty and rough paths of this earth and yet to be enthroned with Christ at the Father’s right hand, to laugh and cry with the children of this world and ceaselessly to sing the praises of God with the choirs of angels this is the life of the Christian until the morning of eternity breaks forth.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
Just as the artist foresees in his mind how he will make each stroke of the brush on the canvas—how short or long or wide (and there is no other way if the painting is to become a masterpiece!) where he should use red or blue—so God does the same, and a thousand times more, in our lives through much suffering and many strokes of color. He does so in order to achieve in us the masterpiece that pleases him the most, so long as we truly embrace these gifts—these bitter circumstances—from him.
— Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361)
The prayer of the sick person is his patience and his acceptance of his sickness for the love of Jesus Christ. Make sickness itself a prayer, for there is none more powerful, save martyrdom!
— Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Whenever we suffer some distress or tribulation, there we find warning and correction for ourselves. Our holy scriptures themselves do not promise us peace, security and repose, but tribulations and distress… The past times that you think were good, are good because they are not yours here and now.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
No one can pass through this life without a cross.
— Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
