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Suffering is a great favor. Remember that everything soon comes to an end . . . and take courage. Think of how our gain is eternal.

Whoever lives in the presence of so good a friend and excellent leader, who went ahead of us to be the first to suffer, can endure all things. The Lord helps us, strengthens us, and never fails.

Our Lord to Teresa: "In this way you will see the reward that comes from suffering, for since you did not have the health to speak with Me, I have spoken with you and favored you."

Run a thousand miles from such expressions as :"I was right." "They had no reason for doing this to me." "The one who did this to me was wrong." God deliver us from this poor way of reasoning. Does it seem to have been right that our good Jesus suffered so many insults and was made to undergo such injustice?

I cannot say I love suffering in itself, but I love it because it conforms me to Him who is my Bridegroom and my Love. Oh, you see, that bestows such sweet peace, such profound joy on the soul, and you end up putting your happiness in everything that is irritating. Little Mama, try to put joy – not the joy you can feel but the joy of your will – into every irritation, every sacrifice...

The lukewarm are very lax and remiss in their will and spirit, and have no solicitude about serving God. Those suffering from the purgative dryness are ordinarily solicitous, concerned, and pained about not serving God.

I found the secret of suffering in peace - I don't say joy. To suffer in peace, it is enough to will all that Jesus wills.

There is a vocation to suffer with Christ and thereby to cooperate in His redemptive work. If we are united to the Lord, we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ; Christ continues to live and to suffer in His members and the suffering borne in union with His is His suffering, integrated and made fruitful in His great redemptive work.

How serious life is:  each minute is given us in order to "root" us deeper in God, as Saint Paul says, so the resemblance to our divine Model may be more striking, the union more intimate.  But to accomplish this plan, which is that of God Himself, here is the secret: forget self, give up self, ignore self, look at the Master, look only at Him, accept as coming directly from His love both joy and suffering...

I find that trials help very much in detaching us from this earth. They make us look higher than this world. Here below, nothing can satisfy us. We cannot enjoy a little rest except in being ready to do God's will.

When you are burdened you are close to God, your strength, who abides with the afflicted.  When you are relieved of the burden you are close to yourself, your own weakness; for virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the trials of patience.

The pathway of the incarnate Son of God winds around the cross and suffering until it comes to the glory of the resurrection. And for each of us, for all humanity, the way is joined to that of the Son of God through suffering and death, to the glory of the resurrection.