<http://ecceagnusdei.blogspot.com/2006/03/saints-interpretation-of-meaning-of.html>A
saint's interpretation of the meaning of the Cross and 14 rules to
abide by in carrying our daily crosses
THE FRIENDS OF THE CROSS by St. Louis De Montfort (1673-1716)
34. But if you suffer as you should, your cross will be a sweet yoke
(Matt. 11, 30), for Christ will share it with you. Your soul will be
borne on it as on a pair of wings to the portals of Heaven. It will
be the mast on your ship guiding you happily and easily to the
harbour of salvation.
Carry your cross with patience: a cross patiently borne will be your
light in spiritual darkness, for he knows naught who knows not how to
suffer (Eccli. 34, 9).
Carry your cross with joy and you will be inflamed with divine love,
for only in suffering can we dwell in the pure love of Christ.
Roses are only gathered from among thorns. As wood is fuel for the
fire, so too is the Cross the only fuel for God's love. Remember that
saying we read in the "Following of Christ": "Inasmuch as you do
violence to yourself, " suffering patiently, "insofar do you advance"
in divine love (Bk. 1, Chap. 15, 11). Do not expect anything great
from those fastidious, slothful souls who refuse the Cross when it
approaches and who do not go in search of any, when discretion allows.
What are they but untilled soil, which can produce only thorns
because it has not been turned up, harrowed and furrowed by a
judicious labourer. They are like stagnant water which is unfit for
either washing or drinking.
Carry your cross joyfully and none of your enemies will be able to
resist its conquering strength (Luke 21, 15), while you yourself will
enjoy its relish beyond compare. Yes, indeed, Brethren, remember that
the real Paradise here on earth is to be found in suffering for
Jesus. Ask the saints. They will tell you that they never tasted a
banquet so delicious to the soul than when undergoing the severest
torments. St. Ignatius the Martyr said: "Let all the torments of the
devil come upon me!" "Either suffering or death!", said St. Theresa,
and St. Magdalene de Pazzi: "Not death but suffering!" "May I suffer
and be despised for Thy sake, " said Blessed John of the Cross. In
reading the lives of the saints we find many others speaking in the
self-same terms.
Dear Brethren, believe the Word of God, for the Holy Spirit says: The
Cross affords all kinds of joy to anyone without exception who
suffers cheerfully for God (Jas. 1, 2). The joy that springs from the
cross is keener than the joy which a poor person would experience if
overladen with an abundance of riches, than the joy of a peasant who
is made ruler of his country, than the joy of a commander-in chief
over the victories he has won, than the joy of a prisoner released
from his fetters. In conclusion, let us picture the greatest joys to
be found here below: the joy of a crucified person who knows how to
suffer not only equals them but even surpasses them all.
35. Be glad, therefore, and rejoice when God favours you with one of
His choicest crosses, for without realising it you are being blessed
with the greatest gift that Heaven has, the greatest gift of God.
Yes, the cross is God's greatest gift. If you could only understand
this, you would have Masses said, you would make novenas at the tombs
of the saints; you would undertake long pilgrimages, as did the
saints, to obtain this divine gift from Heaven.
36. The world claims it is madness on your part, degrading and
stupid, rash and reckless. Let the world, in its blindness, say what
it likes. This blindness which is responsible for a merely human and
distorted view of the cross is a source of glory for us. For every
time they provide us with crosses by mocking and persecuting us, they
are simply offering us jewels, setting us upon a throne and crowning
us with laurels.
37. What I say is but little. Take all the wealth and honours and
sceptres and brilliant diadems of monarchs and princes, says St. John
Chrysostom, they are all insignificant compared with the glory of the
Cross; it is greater even than the glory of the Apostles and the
Sacred Writers. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, this saintly man goes
as far as to say: "If I were given the preference, I would gladly
leave Heaven to suffer for the God of Heaven. I would prefer the
darkness of a dungeon to the thrones of the highest heaven and the
heaviest of crosses to the glory of the Seraphim. Suffering for me is
of greater value than the gift of miracles, the power to command the
infernal spirits, to master the physical universe, to stop the sun in
its course and to raise the dead to life. Peter and Paul are more
glorious in the shackles of a dungeon than in being lifted to the
third heaven and presented with the keys to Paradise. "
38. In fact, was it not the Cross that gave Jesus Christ "a name
which is above all names; that in the name of Jesus every knee should
bow of those that are in heaven, on earth and under the earth" (Phil.
2, 9-10). The glory of the one who knows how to suffer is so great
that the radiance of his splendour rejoices heaven, angels and men
and even the God of Heaven. If the saints in Heaven could still wish
for something they would want to return to earth so as to have the
privilege of bearing a cross.
39. If the cross is covered with such glory on earth, how magnificent
it must be in Heaven. Who could ever understand and tell the eternal
weight of glory we are given when, even for a single instant, we bear
a cross as a cross should be borne (2 Cor. 4, 17)! Who could ever
collate the glory that will be given in Heaven for the crosses and
sufferings we carried for a year, perhaps even for a lifetime.
40. Evidently, my dear Friends of the Cross, heaven is preparing
something grand for you, as you are told by a great Saint, since the
Holy Ghost has united you so intimately to an object which the whole
world so carefully avoids. Evidently, God wishes to make of you as
many saints as you are Friends of the Cross, if you are faithful to
your calling and dutifully carry your cross as Jesus Christ has carried His.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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