My Prayer Book_LASANCE - the Catholic Kingdom!

Happiness in SujWug 87
the dregs. His golden promise afterward to St. Paul
was, 'I will show him whd great things he must suffer
for My name's sake' (Acts ix. 16).
"How blind then are we if we believe that every
suffering is a calamity and a proof of God's wrath;
and that prosperity, and nothing but prosperity, is a
sure sign of His favor!
"(a) He sends suffering in His mercy to atme here
for past sin, to do here quickly the slow work of purgat:=Y.
(b) He sends suffering also to plaveu6 sin ; and to
draw us out of sin, as suffering brought the prodigal
home to Him.
"(c) Lastly He sends suffering to His chosen ones,
as to St. Paul; and these chosen ones then become,
like Himself, Saviour unto many."
Sorrow and suffering are especially blessed and
sanctified by the sacred passion of Jesus, and ought to
help us powerfully to greater union with Him.
St. Francis Xavier, while at I,isbon, was afflicted to
see that everything prospered with him- He was
afraid that God was not pleased with him when He
favored him with no cross. And when sufferings were
sent him, he would exclaim. "Still more, my God,
still more!"
The Apostle plainly tells us that those who would
live piously in Jesus Christ must suffer persecution.
Our Lord Himself says: "He that taketh not up
his cross and followeth Me is not worthy of Me"
(Matt. x. 38). "If any man will come after Me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me"
(Matt. xvi. 14).
''The Son of God," says St. Teresa, "has accomplished
our salvation by the means of sufferings; He
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