If you are suffering, rest assured that you are not alone.
If you are suffering, know that you never will be alone.
If you are suffering, remember that others are likely suffering even more than you right now (and pray for them!)
If you are suffering, remember that others are likely suffering less than you right now (and be happy for them!)
If you are suffering, accept that it may not be over quickly.
If you are suffering, rejoice that it will come to an end some day, if not in this life than certainly in the next.
If you are suffering, don't hold back the unique graces hidden within this situation that are patiently seeking your permission to bloom.
If you are suffering, offer every aspect of it for your own sins and for the sins of the entire human race across time and space (even those that have not yet come to pass!)
If you are suffering, offer it for the holy souls in Purgatory who are being cleansed on the doorstep of Heaven!
If you are suffering, know that there is always a greater purpose.
If you are suffering, it means a Resurrection is right around the corner (if only you will endure and allow Him to roll back the stone from the tomb in which you now find yourself...)
The Man of Sorrows never permits any suffering unless it can somehow lead us "further up and further in"*, transformed more perfectly into a real, unselfish, flourishing, redeemed human person who will one day finally be capable of receiving the Eternal Joy that was always meant to be the destiny for each one of us.
My brothers and sisters, pray we all learn the art of suffering well - to suffer redemptively!
MOTHER OF SORROWS, PRAY FOR US
*C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
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