Lenten Retreat, Day 35: Redemptive Suffering

We begin with the sign of the cross, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Examine your conscience. (Take a few minutes. In silence, remember and feel sorry for your sins, and think of ways you will amend your life.)

Pray the Act of Contrition.

All the science of the saints is included in these two things: To do, and to suffer. And whoever had done these two things best, has made himself most saintly (Saint Francis de Sales).

When you study the lives of saints, you will notice one thing in common, they all suffered. If we study humanity, we will notice that all humans suffer, the good and the bad. However, there is a difference in their suffering. When we use our suffering redemptively it’s like using carbon to make a diamond. Whereas, if we suffer ineffectively, it is like using carbon to make coal. Diamond and coal are chemically identical, however, physically their molecules are different, they are both formed out of carbon.

Meditate on the following verses from scripture and teachings of the saints and use your suffering for the glory of God.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all (Psalm 34:19).

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romas 5:3-5).

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you (1 Peter 5:10).

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4).

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).

There is no affliction, trial, or labor difficult to endure, when we consider the torments and sufferings which Our Lord Jesus Christ endured for us (St Teresa of Avila).

Redemptive Suffering: Jesus said to me; “How many times would you have abandoned Me if I had not crucified you. Beneath the cross one learns love, I do not give this to everyone, but only to those who are dearest to Me” (Saint Padre Pio).

Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation (St Augustine).

I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the cross than in serving the world and its pleasures (St John Vianney).

Learn to suffer for Jesus Christ without letting others perceive it (St Teresa of Avila).

Afflictions, illness, ill health, and the pains that our bodies experience are counted for the remission of our trespasses. They are the furnace in which we are purified (St John Chrysostom).

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.