Sunday Spiritual Readings from the Saints about Suffering

"There is no predestined soul who does not suffer greatly from sickness at least once in his lifetime." (Cardinal Segura y Saez)

Understand the role of suffering in obtaining heaven;
understand what spiritual life is.

A Spanish Cardinal, Pedro Segura y Saez, Archbishop of Seville, once heard someone say he had never been sick.

"So, you do not have the sign of the elect soul," answered the Cardinal. "There is no predestined soul who does not suffer profoundly from sickness at least once in his lifetime. If you have never had any health problem, you do not have the sign of the elect."

Shortly after this conversation, the cardinal's associate had a heart attack. He wrote this note from his sick bed to Cardinal Segura:

"Your Eminence, now I also have the sign of the elect." So, we see how suffering is the sign of the elect.

And that's why I encourage you to learn about the vital role of suffering for eternal salvation.

Lourdes' Lesson in Suffering

But there's more.

Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus referred often to suffering, saying "if the good Lord gave us the entire universe, with all its treasures, it could not be compared to the lightest of sufferings."

And she wrote that:

"Holiness does not consist in saying beautiful things, it does not even consist in thinking them, in feeling them! It consists in suffering and in suffering everything."

Saint Therese teaches us so much about holiness and suffering, in this simple and serene manner.

Suffering and the Little Way of Saint Therese

And Saint Francis de Sales called suffering "the eighth sacrament."
At Fatima, Our Lady asked the three children to practice "the eighth sacrament" to save the souls of poor sinners.

"Pray, pray a great deal and make sacrifices for sinners. So many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and sacrifice for them."

So we know we are on the right track when we suffer and offer our sufferings to Our Lady, as She requested at Fatima.

To grow in love for suffering and to help the souls of poor sinners, PLEASE READ THIS.

Finally, to learn more about the benefits of suffering in the perspective of the Fatima message...

PLEASE SEE THIS: Fatima and the Necessity of Suffering.