Passion Sunday 2025 AD.
Copied from a leaflet featuring a picture of Jesus Christ carrying His heavy cross.
Quotes from Saints and Religious.
The Value of Suffering

When God permits suffering it is for our betterment.


“The more the wicked abound, so much the more must we suffer with them in patience; for on the threshing floor few are the grains carried into the barns, but high are the piles of chaff burned with fire.” *

Pope St. Gregory the Great
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An ounce of crosses is worth more than a thousand pounds of prayer, a day of crucifixion is more valuable than one hundred years of all other holy exercises. It is of more value to stay one moment on the cross than to enjoy all the delights of paradise.
— Venerable Sr. M. Victoria Angelini
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When Blessed Angela of Foligno was asked how she could accept and suffer so happily all the trials that befell her, she replied: "Believe me when I say that the value and greatness of suffering is not known. If we understood it well, we would try our utmost to steal from one another the occasions of suffering."
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A "thanks be to God," a "blessed be God," said in times of adversity have more value than a thousand "thank you's" in times of prosperity.
— Father M. de Avila
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While ill and suffering severely, St. Francis was told by one of his religious that he should ask God for some relief. But the saint reprimanded him and, bowing his head, said: "O God, I thank you for this trial which I am undergoing and I beg You, if it pleases You, to increase my pains. What could and should be more pleasing to me than that You afflict me, when this is what I desire above everything else?"
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In order to get to heaven, we must suffer. Our Lord shows us the way in the person of Simon the Cyrenian; He calls His friends to carry His cross after Him.
— St. John Vianney
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If God were to grant you the gift of raising the dead, He would be giving you much less than when He permits you to suffer. In fact, with the gift of miracles He makes you His debtor, but with sufferings He makes Himself your debtor. And if your sufferings should not be rewarded in any other way but to be able to suffer a little for that God Who loves you, would not this be a sufficiently great recompense in itself? He who loves understands what I mean.
— St. John Chrysostom
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To have everything go along smoothly, according to one's desires and without having anything to suffer for the love of God should be considered a great misfortune not only for individuals, but also for the Congregations as a whole. Yes, you may be certain that a person or Congregation that does not suffer and is praised by the whole world is heading for a fall!
— St. Vincent de Paul
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Padre Pio of Pietrelcina wrote to a spiritual daughter: "Suffering is my daily bread, my delight. I suffer when I do not suffer if there is some instant in my life without suffering. Crosses are the jewels of the Spouse and I am jealous of them. Woe to whoever puts himself between me and the cross!"
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Bodily and spiritual affliction are the surest sign of Divine predilection. Gratitude for suffering is a precious jewel for our heavenly crown... Man should always firmly believe that God sends just that trial which is most beneficial for him.
— Saint Gertrude the Great
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The sick sometimes complain that in sickness they can do nothing; but they err; for, in their infirmities they can do all things, by accepting their sufferings with peace and resignation.
— St. Alphonsus Liguori
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St. John Vianney relates a story where a good religious complained one day to Our Lord that he was being persecuted. He said, "O Lord, what have I done to be treated thus?" Our Lord answered him, "And I, what had I done when I was led to Calvary?" Then the religious understood; he wept, he asked pardon and dared not complain anymore.
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When St. Francis and St. Andrew Avellino passed a day without suffering something for the love of God, they felt that God had forgotten them and had abandoned them.
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Suffering is the very best gift He has to give us. He gives it only to His chosen friends.
— St. Thérèse of Lisieux
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Suffering is the money with which one buys heaven.
— Blessed Théophane Vénard
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Can you expect to go to heaven for nothing? Did not our dear Saviour track the whole way to it with His blood and tears?
— Blessed Elizabeth Seton
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We must suffer in order to go to God. We forget this truth far too often.
— St. Madeleine Sophie Barat
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If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He has great designs for you, and that He certainly intends to make you a Saint. And if you wish to become a great Saint, entreat Him yourself to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the cross, which Christ used for His own sacrifice of boundless charity.
— St. Ignatius Loyola
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We must ask for the love of crosses; then they will become sweet.
St. John Vianney
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We must remember that all incapacity and distress is sent to us by God. Life and death, health and sickness, are all ordered by Him; and in whatever form they come, it is always to help us and for our good.
— St. Vincent de Paul
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You ought to thank God when He chastises you; for His chastisements are a proof that He loves you, and receives you into the number of His children. "Whoever the Lord loves," says St. Paul, "He chastises, and He scourges every son whom He receives." (Heb. 12:6)*
— St. Alphonsus Liguori
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The Saints suffered everything with joy, patience, and perseverance, because they loved. As for us, we suffer with anger, vexation, and weariness, because we do not love. If we loved God, we should love crosses, we should wish for them, we should take pleasure in them...We should be happy to be able to suffer for the love of Him who lovingly suffered for us.
— St. John Vianney
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If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of great holiness which He desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings. The flame of Divine Love never rises higher than when fed with the wood of the Cross, which the infinite charity of the Savior used to finish His sacrifice. All the pleasures of the world are nothing compared with the sweetness found in the gall and vinegar offered to Jesus Christ. That is, hard and painful things endured for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ. *
St. Ignatius Loyola
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Suffering is a great favor. Remember that everything soon comes to an end . . . and take courage. Think of how our gain is eternal. *
-St. Teresa of Avila
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Nothing is more pleasing to God, or more profitable for you, than to suffer gladly for Christ... Had there been a better way than suffering for the good of a person's soul, our Lord would certainly have shown it by word and example. But since there was not, He clearly urged his disciples and all those who wished to follow Him to carry the cross, saying: "Whoever wishes to be My follower must deny his very self, take up his cross each day, and follow in My steps." Luke 9:3)
— Thomas a Kempis

*Some quotes from: https://www.catholicgallery.org/quotes/saints-quotes-on-suffering/

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Fr. M. Kolbe was in hospital 2 Years !!![/color]
https://catholicism.org/maximilian-kolbe.html


"...spreading devotion to the Miraculous Medal. All his life the saint carried a pocketful of the medals-“bullets” he called them. Whenever he went among the public, he seized every opportunity for making a convert. And after giving some soul the challenge of the Faith, he would present the person with a Miraculous Medal, leaving it to Our Lady to finish the job.

Penance was another powerful weapon for the Crusade, and Saint Maximilian utilized it expertly. Shortly after he came to Rome he began to suffer terrible headaches constantly. He also contracted tuberculosis. The doctors failed to diagnose the consuming disease and consequently his lungs continued to deteriorate, especially after his return to Poland in 1919, where the climate was menacing to such a condition. But the spiritual warrior never complained, and rarely allowed any sign of his intense suffering to betray him. “It is understood that whoever works for the Immaculate Virgin must be ready to suffer much,” he would say. Few if any knew he was chronically ill. Some even ignorantly belittled him for his deliberate slowness of movement, which was necessary to avoid hemorrhaging.

The health of our saint worsened so drastically that late in 1919 he had to enter a sanatorium, where he remained for two years. This was a heavy cross for the relentless apostle, because his superiors ordered him to suspend all his activities in the Militia during that period...."