11 Saints Quotes on Suffering To Help You Deal
The reason that there are so many Saints quotes on suffering, is because suffering is a large part of the human condition.
If you are a breathing, living human being, you are going to suffer at some point in your life.
Some people are going to be naturally more physically or mentally tolerant of different types of suffering. In the same way, something that seems minor to someone might be great suffering for another.
The Essence of Catholic Suffering
Catholicism teaches us that although suffering in itself is not inherently good, God allows us to suffer for the good of our souls. Suffering refines us and helps us to get to heaven if we let it. This is the essence of Catholic suffering.
Our Lord & Lady Suffered
Our Lord tells us in Matthew that “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt 16:24).
To demonstrate that fact, he himself literally took up his cross. Imagine that! The King of the Universe deigned to suffer for us.
Our Lady also suffered. Seven swords pierced her heart.
We Must Not Let Our Suffering Go to Waste
Also, we are able to “offer up our suffering for the good of our souls and for others, including those in purgatory.
It is possible to “waste” our suffering if we complain. If we’re going to suffer anyway, we might as well put it to good use.
May these Saints Quotes enrich your understanding of suffering.
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10 Saints Quotes on Suffering
1) St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi Yearns to Suffer
“I do not desire to die soon, because in Heaven there is no suffering. I desire to live a long time because I yearn to suffer much for the love of my Spouse.”
St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
2) St. Therese de Lisieux Learns That One Must Suffer to Know Suffering
“O Mother, it’s very easy to write beautiful things about suffering, but writing is nothing, nothing! One must suffer in order to know! I really feel now that what I’ve said and written is true about everything….It’s true that I wanted to suffer much for God’s sake, and it’s true that I still desire this.”
St Therese de Lisieux
3) Venerable Fulton J. Sheen on How God Gets into Hearts
Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
“Sometimes the only way the good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them.”
4) Padre Pio on Daily Martyrdom
St. Padre Pio
“I want your soul to be purified and tried by a daily hidden martyrdom. How many times,” Jesus said to me a little while ago, “would you have abandoned me, my son, if I had not crucified you.”
Consoling Thoughts on Sickness & Death, by St. Francis de Sales
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5) St. Francis de Sales on the Science of the Saints
St Francis de Sales
“All the science of the Saints is included in these two things: To do, and to suffer. And whoever had done these two things best, has made himself most saintly. “
6) St. Augustine of Hippo on Our Lord’s Suffering
“God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.”
St Augustine of Hippo
7) St. Ignatius of Loyola on the Fire of God’s Love
St Ignatius of Loyola
“There is no better wood for feeding the fire of God’s love than the wood of the Cross.”
8) St. Vincent de Paul on the Treasure Hidden in Infirmities
“If we only knew the precious treasure hidden in infirmities, we would receive them with the same joy with which we receive the greatest benefits, and we would bear them without ever complaining or showing signs of weariness
St Vincent de Paul
9) St. Rose of Lima on Complaining About One’s Cross
“If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men.”
St Rose of Lima
10) St. John of the Cross on Detachment & Suffering
” Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.”
St John of the Cross
11) St. Bernadette Soubiroux On Why We Must Suffer
“Why must we suffer? Because here below, pure Love cannot exist without suffering.”
~St Bernadette Soubirous
Books on Suffering
*** When possible, we will link to Catholic bookstores. Thanks for supporting Catholic bookstores.***
- Manual for Suffering
- Self Abandonment to Divine Providence
- Consoling Thoughts on Trials of an Interior Life by St Francis de Sales
- Consoling Thoughts on Sickness & Death by St Francis de Sales
- Joy in Suffering
- The Life of St Gemma Galgani
It was more useful for me.Thankyou.
God help me to make heaven
One cannot earn your way to heaven. It is a gift given by the grace of God. See Ephesians 2.8. One is born again by the Spirit and is baptized into the body of Christ. (John 3) A gift! Praise God!
May the power of the holy spirit make me lyk st thereza
ONE MUST FIND JOY OF THE CROSS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
Suffering really purifies is. And we become dear to God. Once we faithfully pass through a suffering we will experience God’s love more and more. Great experience
This was written by daughter Maria who just turned 23 yesterday… So I wrote this:
I feel a fire burn within my soul for you. The burning becomes more intense and I feed and fuel the fire with the wood of my very own cross that I carry for you. The more I feed the fire, the more ferocious the flames become. The light becomes so bright that it is almost blinding but, then again, not at all. It is so easy to see. To see absolutely everything in your light. I think: “This is all I want and all I will ever want. Why would I ever even consider the possibility of anything else?!”
But, one day, the flame disappears.
Maybe you stopped fueling the fire. Maybe you abandoned your cross and ran out of firewood to feed it. You just let the fire burn until there was nothing left for it to burn.
Or, maybe you were fueling it, but a gust of wind came unexpectedly and blew your fire out.
Regardless, either way, you are now left in the dark in total and complete blindness.
You think: “How did this happen?! Where everything was once so easy to see, I can no longer see at all. Where once I had such a burning desire that warmed and welcomed Christ, nothing burns at all and I am left alone in the cold, dark emptiness.”
Now what?
How am I supposed to reignite the flame in complete darkness when I feel I have nothing left to give?
You’re not. You’re not supposed to reignite the flame. You’re supposed to allow your discouragement to transform into hope. Hope that trusts completely and totally in Christ.
Why?
Because, in this moment, in complete darkness, you’re unsure of yourself, unsure where your cross lies that will help you start the fire.
But, wherever there is Christ, there is his cross. The cross that he carries for you.
Allow him to come into your heart, carrying his cross, and that spark of hope you withhold will reignite the flame you once had.
Only this time, the flame will be more fierce and much more ferocious than ever before. Because, now, the flame burns upon the cross of Christ. The cross that carries the sins of the world.
Oh, how much more radiant the beauty in this brightness?! A blinding light from a blinding darkness. A flame formed from complete and total faith. That burns ever so brightly upon the cross of Christ.
So, in those moments when faith only seems impossible, trust that those are the moments when faith is only possible.