For earthly happiness and eternal happiness, live your life as prescribed for us by the Creator, Who is all-wise and loving.  He knows what is best for us and gives us everything we need.  We may not always see the wisdom of God’s gifts to us, but be assured they are for the best.

Let us never then attribute our losses, our disappointments, our afflictions, our humiliations to the devil or to men, but to God as their real source.  ‘To act otherwise,” says St. Dorothy, ‘would be to do the same as a dog who vents his anger on the stone instead of putting the blame on the hand that threw it at him.’  So let us be careful not to say, ‘So-and-so is the cause of my misfortune.’

Your misfortunes are the work not of this or that person but of God.  And what should give you reassurance is that God, the sovereign Good, is guided in all His actions by His most profound wisdom for holy and supernatural purposes.”[1]

Here is an admirable Prayer When Receiving Your Daily Cross:

Do with me and mine as Thou please.  I ask and desire only three things: Thy love, final perseverance, and the grace always to do Thy holy will.  And if to love Thee thus, I must endure persecution and suffering, I am perfectly satisfied.

Let us then conclude with St. Augustine:

All that happens to us in this world against our will (whether due to men or to other causes) happens to us only by the will of God, by the disposal of Providence, by His orders and under His guidance; and if by the frailty of our understanding we cannot grasp the reason for some event, let us attribute it to Divine Providence, show Him some respect by accepting it from His hand, believe firmly that He does not send it to us without cause.[2]

 

Some find it hard to believe one has to suffer to avoid sin.  But consider this: If you were very, very successful (e.g., in business), it is easier to see that salvation is likely not your top priority, not if you are constantly seeking more awards and honors and even world-wide recognition. 

Now contrast that with how the Saints wanted to leave the world and live and seek salvation in the desert or in the wilderness.  Thus, they earned Heaven. 

Remember, you have to earn Heaven.

Here are some reflections on earning Heaven and the part suffering plays in that:

Suffering is thought by many to be the great evil of life.  Oh, if they could only avoid it!  The truth is that if they did find a way of avoiding it, that would be the greatest evil of their lives.

All about suffering.  Our Lord has given us a most perfect redemption.  He could have dispensed the law of suffering if He so willed.  Why does God, being of infinite goodness and mercy, ask us to suffer?

He does so for the simple reason that suffering is a very great grace.  

Our suffering is a share, a small but most valuable share, in the Passion of our dear Lord.

It is priceless in value – if we only accept it and offer it in union with Christ’s Passion.

He has suffered unspeakable agonies for each of us.  Are we such arrant cowards as to refuse to suffer a little for Him?

How little gratitude we show for all that He has done for us!  The easiest and best way of thanking Him is to offer our daily crosses and trials for love of Him.

The one big trouble about suffering is that we do not know how to suffer.  We have no idea of its merits.

The secret is to suffer with patience and serenity.  Then suffering loses all its sting, all its bitterness.

We need only remember that it is our sweet Lord Himself Who asks us to bear these daily trials for love of Him, suffering loses its horrors.

God gives us abundant strength and grace to bear our crosses, if we ask Him.

Many good and pious Christians never think of asking God to help them to bear their crosses!  Therefore, their crosses weigh heavily on them.

Our sufferings are the purest gold in our lives.  Five minutes’ suffering is of greater worth than twenty years of pleasure and happiness.

One fact well worth remembering is that our daily sufferings, the least as well as the greatest, if borne well, merit for us a crown of martyrdom.       

Suffering, well borne, makes us saints.[3]

In closing, this might be a thought to bear in mind:

If a little suffering makes you impatient now, what will hell fire do?  In truth, you cannot have two joys: you cannot taste the pleasures of this world and afterward reign with Christ.[4]