Patience
“He that does not take up his cross and follow Me, is not worth of Me.” — St. Matt. 10:38.
FIFTEENTH DAY.
A true spirit of Christianity gives more a desire for afflictions and spiritual dryness than for those feelings of a sweeter kind. In this we follow Jesus Christ and renounce ourselves, which He has so much inculcated. — St. John of the Cross.
Our Lord gave to St. Catharine of Siena the choice of two crowns, one of gold, the other of thorns. Without hesitating, she chose that of thorns. From that moment her love for suffering was so great that she said: “Nothing is so agreeable to me as the cross. If God gave me the choice to go to paradise or to remain longer here to suffer, I would choose to remain on earth. I know it is by the means of suffering we merit the glory of heaven.”
Prayer.
My God, it is only by humiliation, prayer, and patience that I can arrive in heaven. Grant me these graces: to pray always, to be humble, to mortify myself, and to suffer with joy.