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O you souls who wish to go on with so much safety and consolation, if you knew how pleasing to God is suffering, and how much it helps in acquiring other good things, you would never seek consolation in anything; but you would rather look upon it as a great happiness to bear the Cross of the Lord.

More effective than the mortification one practices according to one's own choice is the cross that God lays upon one, exteriorly and interiorly.

Suffering is not unknown to me. In it I find my joy, for on the Cross one finds Jesus and He is love. And what does suffering matter when one loves?

What is the sacrifice? What is the Cross but heaven when Jesus Christ is on it?  Give Him your will in such a way that you can no longer say "I want this," but I desire what He desires.

The Lord told me this:...'Behold these wounds, for your sufferings have never reached this point. Suffering is the way of truth. By this means you will help me weep over the loss of those who follow the way of the world...

You, my God, have declared yourself my captain; you have raised the standard of the Cross, saying: ‘Take up the cross and follow in my footsteps.’ To correspond with this invitation, I promise to resist your love no longer; rather, I will follow you to Calvary without hesitation.

If we are determined to submit ourselves and to carry the cross, we shall find in it great refreshment.

The end cannot be reached without adopting the means, and since Our Lord had made me understand that it was through the cross He would give me souls, the more crosses I encountered the stronger became my attraction to suffering.

For on this road there is room only for self denial (as our Savior asserts) and the cross. The cross is a supporting staff and greatly lightens and eases the journey.

When the spiritual man has been brought to nothing, when his humility is perfect, then will take place the union of the soul with God. This consists not in spiritual refreshment, sweetness and fine sentiments but in the living death of the cross.

Do you know what it means to be truly spiritual? It means becoming the slaves of God. Marked with His brand, which is that of the cross, spiritual persons, because now they have given Him their liberty, can be sold by Him as slaves of everyone as He was.

I wish...I could help you find consolation near the Cross. In its shadow, every kind of bitterness fades. No one has suffered like Jesus has and, from His cross, He teaches us to bear with every pain in silence and in resignation. From the cross and with open arms He invites us saying; "Come to me all you who are burdened under the weight of suffering and I will give you rest."