~ January 14, 2021 ~
 

Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood,
Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son,
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, 
in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. 

Heavenly Father, 
we entrust the United States of America to your care.
You are the solid rock on which this nation was founded.
You alone are the true source of our cherished rights to life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness.
Reclaim this land for your glory and dwell among your people.

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Jesus, I Trust in You!

Amen.

Excerpt from the Book of Fr Michael Gaitley:

“Consoling the Heart of Jesus” 

:”Fear of suffering tends to come up a lot for those who strive to console Jesus. After all, those who want to console him commit themselves to making reparation, and reparation often involves suffering. Despite the risk of focusing too much on this “second thing”, it’s important that we look at it more closely. I say this because the bad spirit often inflates this second thing so much that it becomes larger than life, frightens us, and blocks our view of the “first thing”, namely, Jesus. My aim here is to deflate suffering down to its true size, so we’ll see it’s not so scary. In fact, once it’s deflated, we might even begin to find in suffering a source of joy… 

People often think they can escape suffering. They can’t. Suffering finds us all. Everyone in the world suffers: rich and poor, healthy and sick, young and old. It might not always look like certain people suffer, but suffering comes in various forms, many of which are hidden. Truly, if we look back on our own lives, we find at least some confirmation of the idea that suffering is part of the human condition. 

While we may know that suffering is an inevitable aspect of life, there’s at leas a small part of us that silently rebels against this fact and spends a lot of time and energy trying to find ways to avoid it. Like suffering itself, this part of us is a simple fact of life. That being said, we don’t have to let it control our lives. Indeed, we should resist that temptation. For, again, suffering finds us all, no matter how much we strive to avoid it, and those who make such striving the center of their lives often end up being the ones who suffer the most.

The best way to deal with suffering is to accept it, unite it to Christ in his suffering, and begin to find its hidden treasure…

It seems to me there are at least two different Christian approaches to suffering the first approach (the approach of big souls) tends to be very active. It involves actively choosing lots of penances, mortifications, and sacrifices. Such an approach has a long history in the Church and has helped produce a number of saints. 

I propose a more passive approach to suffering that’s keeping with a theme of this retreat: “letting Jesus do it.” …We first ask Jesus to choose for us the suffering that he knows will form us into saints (for he knows best) and then simply accept what he sends. If you’re worried that it won’t be enough, that he won’t really find crosses for you, that he’ll forget – don’t. I can only say from experience, there’s no need to worry. …Jesus is amazingly gentle. He knows what we can take and what we need. In fact, you might even come to find, as I have, that he’s gentler with us than we are with ourselves…

Personal Response: Daily Journal

How will you and your goal in life be different if you give the Lord permission to take control of your suffering?

Private comments, reflections, and thoughts are welcomed. Email Fr. JC @ PresentationMedia.

Marian Missionaries of Divine Mercy.
Purchase the book of Fr. Michael Gaitley.