It is difficult to suffer well. Sometimes, however, we meet souls who are perfectly submissive to God and who, having offered themselves, never wish to take back anything even during the most excruciating sufferings.
Vaincre, a review for the sick, says: "Father Lacordaire, broken by a thousand trials but heroically faithful, declares that he is not mistaken: 'One must have an absolute infinite conviction that what comes from God is best, even though it seems the worst from the human point of view. I have experienced that a thousand times in my life.'" And the author of the article adds, "A brave patient, in the evening of his young life, said with a celestial smile, 'Father, I have offered to the good God every beat of my heart. Ah! He has heard me. It is too wonderful! How much I can love Him now that my heart beats at one hundred thirty!'"
Another patient writes: "I was deceived by the opinion of the doctor. Convinced that I could not survive the operation, I spent all the days of preparation longing for Our Lord and I pictured myself feasting with joy in the fold of the Good Shepherd. I stumbled and tottered in taking up again the heavier cross of continued life. I have not suffered enough. I called Our Lord so much that He came, but not as I had expected. Oh! assuredly, I take nothing back of my surrender, but I have not yet regained my balance. My present profound peace seeks greater peace in the new order proposed to it.
"Now I suffer almost continually, and for some days I have been in very sharp pain. It is only the beginning, I offer all without hesitation but not without trembling."
This is generosity of the same caliber expressed in a different way.
Do I know how to suffer?
_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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