June 12

Suffering is the necessary condition for spiritual and physical growth.

Really, really I tell you, you will cry, and you will fall, and the world will be glorified. You will be sad, and your sadness will become joy. A woman is in pain when she gives birth to a child, and after the birth she doesn’t remember, and she is joyful.

— John 16:20-21

Very often we say that we don’t like suffering, that we have too much suffering, but sufferings, all kinds of sufferings, are always good for us. Sometimes, we even see that it is useful to suffer: children suffer when they grow, or when it is necessary that they clean an injury filled with filth. We cannot see the usefulness of moral sufferings, but those sufferings, too, make us better and closer to God.

We grow thus: We come closer to God and God comes closer to us as our will becomes united with the will of God.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

You should look in suffering for the seeds of your future spiritual growth, or the bitterness of suffering will be severe.