We may be great at doing our acts and rounds and learning more about the gift of the Divine Will, but we can only go so far if we don’t master suffering. In the volumes of Luisa there are hundreds of passages on the precious gift of suffering. We all understand this and the many benefits of using our suffering. The problem is when we are riddled with pain or grief, it’s difficult to remember this truth and put it into practice by offering up the suffering joined with the Cross. Even when we eventually remember to do this, we might still be miserable.
Here is a valuable lesson Jesus gave Luisa when she was upset in the midst of a suffering. He told her she was making Him suffer more! That’s the last thing we want to do – cause Jesus to suffer more. He has suffered enough. Offer up the suffering, look into Jesus’ eyes, and smile even if you have to force it.
Mastering suffering is one of the greatest things we can do. Suffering is a powerful instrument in the hands of a person living in the Divine Will.
Once Luisa saw a person who was suffering. Jesus told her to advise this person that her sufferings could medicate Him. “Tell her that in the act in which she feels as though dogged by persecutions, by punctures, by sufferings, she should think that I am present with her, and that whatever she suffers she can use to heal and medicate my wounds…This is a great honor that I give her, by giving her, Myself, the medicine to medicate my wounds…” Many purging souls were amazed when they heard Jesus explaining this to Luisa. “Fortunate are all of you to receive so many sublime teachings-that you acquire the merits to medicate a God, which surpasses all other merits in merit-and your glory will be distinct from the others, as is Heaven from the earth. Oh, if only we had received these teachings… how many riches we would acquire, which now we do not have!” (10/2/06) God gives us all sufferings that can be used to relieve Jesus’ suffering. Do not waste your sufferings. Make use of them. The souls in purgatory would love to have our opportunity to “medicate a God!”
And force yourself to SMILE while you’re doing it.
We have posted a download of a paper entitled: Suffering – A Precious Gift under RESOURCES. It touches upon only a handful of the passages on suffering but it helped us to remember in the heat of the moment to make an offering and smile even in the midst of tears. We are not always successful. But God looks at our intentions-so we’ve got that going for us.
