June 12

Suffering is a necessary condition for growth, both physical and spiritual.

1

Most certainly I tell you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she does not remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world.

— John 16:20–21

2

We complain about suffering. But suffering, every kind of suffering, is always good for us. Sometimes we can see that bodily suffering will benefit us, as happens when children are growing up or when an abscess comes to a head, etc. But at other times we see no benefit in our suffering, both bodily and spiritual, and we complain. But what we do not know is that all suffering is good for us, for it helps us improve and draw closer to God.

3

To lighten the bitterness of suffering you can, firstly, vividly imagine people who are suffering much more than you, and secondly, realize that you can either bear suffering badly, by complaining, or well, by submitting to it.

4

Here is how we grow. Every thought of every person already contains within it a higher thought; the character that a person manifests today is already preparing a higher character. A young man discards the illusions of childhood, a man discards the ignorance and stormy passions of his youth, an old man discards the selfishness of his younger years and gradually becomes a universal soul. He ascends onto a higher, firmer stage of life. External relationships and conditions fade away, and he enters more and more into God, and God into him—until the time when the last vestment of his selfishness falls away from him and he is united with God, merging his will with God’s and taking part in his greatness.

— Emerson

5

The more wise deeds a person does, the more life comes to him.

— John Ruskin

6

When you find yourself in a difficult spiritual state, you must not give up, you must not express yourself to anyone but God. It is important to remain silent, to endure. Either your suffering will be transferred to someone else and make them suffer, or it will burn out within you and help you ascend and draw a little closer to perfection.

7

Virtue and spiritual power are fortified and perfected by misfortune, suffering and disease. This is why you should not fear the trials that may befall you, but bear them with firmness. Every trial brings you ever closer to God.

— From “Devout Thoughts”

8

Misfortune is a touchstone for human life.

— Fletcher

Seek in suffering a meaning for your spiritual growth and the bitterness of suffering will be destroyed.