"I want to assure you of my profound compassion in the painful crisis that you are going through. I understand it thoroughly. But if the waves of suffering and bitterness are violent, do not let yourself go under. Do not let harmful imaginings and debilitating thoughts invade your heart.
Having come to Jesus to share in His sacrifices and His Passion, you have experienced this and continue to go through an agony similar to the one the Savior knew in Gethsemane. Do you know that these anxieties, these dilemmas are not unknown even in the world? It is enough to have received these choice graces and to know at the same time the deep call, the mysterious vocation of suffering.
You cannot relive your life in your mind and imagine that all would have been easier and better in another direction. No, the cross is planted everywhere, in the world. And if the cross plunges more deeply into God's chosen ones, it is because he has himself prepared favorable soil.
A priest said about a woman who was struggling with her feelings: "There are times when you have to take your heart [and] throw it at God's feet...." How hard that is, but how mysterious! At that moment, miracles of grace take place, and one hour of such suffering is equal to a life given over simply to doing the good."
- SERVANT OF GOD ELISABETH LESEUR
Elisabeth Leseur († 1914) was a French married laywoman whose cause for canonization is underway.
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