Is God’s Grace is Enough for Us to Survive Our Crosses?

Having faith in God does not always mean being exempted from suffering. Though we “claim” victory in the Name of Christ, victory does not always come painlessly. Even Christ’s victory came through pain and suffering. Before the Resurrection, He was first tortured by the Romans.

So are we doomed?

No.

Shall we experience pain and suffering in this life?

Most probably.

Accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior will not exempt you from the cross. It is actually the opposite. “Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mt 16:24)

If Jesus is truly our Lord, then we servants are no greater than Him. And He hangs on a cross.

When God said “My grace is sufficient for you,” He promises us the grace to survive whatever pain, suffering or trials we are experiencing. He does not promise to take the pain away, but the strength to survive it. St Paul knew this:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

Sin introduced suffering. And ever since then it has been a part of the human experience. Yet suffering, an evil in itself, can be used by God. He used it to save us. Through his Passion, salvation came. Suffering did not have the last word, the Word made flesh had the last Word, Jesus.

No matter how dark and painful our situation is right now, light awaits at the end of the tunnel. And this light is Christ Himself.

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn't overcome it." (Jn 1:5)

In Jesus we shall find the strength to carry it through. In Him we shall find the strength we do not posses but need. “I can do all these things in him who strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13)

His grace is enough.



Our shoulders will always feel the weight of the cross. But do not forget who is carrying it with you.

Jesus.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

St Vincent de Paul

Feastday: September 27
Patron of charitable societies

St. Vincent was born of poor parents in the village of Pouy in Gascony, France, about 1580. He enjoyed his first schooling under the Franciscan Fathers at Acqs. Such had been his progress in four years that a gentleman chose him as subpreceptor to his children, and he was thus enabled to continue his studies without being a burden to his parents. In 1596, he went to the University of Toulouse for theological studies, and there he was ordained priest in 1600.

In 1605, on a voyage by sea from Marseilles to Narbonne, he fell into the hands of African pirates and was carried as a slave to Tunis. His captivity lasted about two years, until Divine Providence enabled him to effect his escape. After a brief visit to Rome he returned to France, where he became preceptor in the family of Emmanuel de Gondy, Count of Goigny, and General of the galleys of France. In 1617, he began to preach missions, and in 1625, he lay the foundations of a congregation which afterward became the Congregation of the Mission or Lazarists, so named on account of the Prioryof St. Lazarus, which the Fathers began to occupy in 1633.

It would be impossible to enumerate all the works of this servant of God. Charity was his predominant virtue. It extended to all classes of persons, from forsaken childhood to old age. The Sisters of Charity also owe the foundation of their congregation to St. Vincent. In the midst of the most distracting occupations his soul was always intimately united with God. Though honored by the great ones of the world, he remained deeply rooted in humility. The Apostle of Charity, the immortal Vincent de Paul, breathed his last in Paris at the age of eighty. His feast day is September 27th. He is the patron of charitable societies.

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Pope notes numbers of faithful declining, asks: ‘Should the Church not change?’

BY JOHN-HENRY WESTEN

FREIBURG, September 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a talk at the Freiburg Concert Hall in Germany regarding the decline of religious practice, Pope Benedict VI warned against the worldly character of many Western Catholic charities. The Pope’s comments appear related in part to revelations in recent years of Western bishops’conference development agencies financially supporting pro-abortion and in many other ways anti-Catholic “social justice” organizations.

“For some decades now we have been experiencing a decline in religious practice and we have been seeing substantial numbers of the baptized drifting away from church life. This prompts the question: should the Church not change?” began Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday, in one of his final addresses during his trip to his native Germany. “Must [the Church] not adapt her offices and structures to the present day, in order to reach the searching and doubting people of today?”, he continued in what is being touted as one of the most significant addresses during his journey.

Change it must, said the Pope, but not in the direction of the world but precisely the opposite.

The Pope spoke of a negative “tendency” in which the Church “becomes self-satisfied, settles down in this world, becomes self-sufficient and adapts herself to the standards of the world.” He said however, “In order to accomplish her true task adequately, the Church must constantly renew the effort to detach herself from her tendency towards worldliness and once again to become open towards God.”

Benedict XVI pointed to secular persecution of the Church as having a liberating and purifying effect. “Secularizing trends - whether by expropriation of Church goods, or elimination of privileges or the like - have always meant a profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness,” he said.

“Once liberated from material and political burdens and privileges, the Church can reach out more effectively and in a truly Christian way to the whole world,” he said.

The Pope drew a connection in this context to the work of Catholic charities which have been under scrutiny in Western nations for their worldly character. Pope Benedict noted “the Church’s charitable activity also needs to be constantly exposed to the demands of due detachment from worldliness, if it is not to wither away at the roots in the face of increasing erosion of its ecclesial character.”

“[I]t is time once again to discover the right form of detachment from the world, to move resolutely away from the Church’s worldliness,” said the Pope.

See Benedict’s complete talk here

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Prayer of St Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

LITANY OF HUMILITY

From the desire of being praised, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honoured, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of comfort and ease, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being criticized, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being passed over, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being lonely, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being hurt, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering, deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like yours.
O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, strengthen me with your Spirit.
O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, teach me your ways.

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
help me put my self importance aside
to learn the kind of cooperation with others
that makes possible the presence of your Abba's household.

Adapted from a prayer by Rafael, Cardinal Merry Del Val,
from the prayer book, For Jesuits, 1963, Loyola University Press.

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