Letter to the Friends of the Cross by St Louis de Montfort
2. Nothing is so useful and so agreeable
But if, on the contrary, you suffer in the right way, the cross will become a yoke that is easy and light, since Christ himself will carry it with you. It will give you wings, as it were, to lift you to heaven; it will become your ship’s mast, bringing you smoothly and easily to the harbour of salvation.
Carry your cross patiently, and it will be a light in your spiritual darkness, for the one who has never suffered trials is ignorant. Carry your cross cheerfully, and you will be filled with divine love; for only in suffering can we dwell in the pure love of Christ.
Roses are only found among thorns. It is the cross alone which nourishes our love of God, as wood is the fuel which feeds the fire. Remember the beautiful saying in the “Imitation of Christ”, “In proportion as you do violence to yourself, by suffering patiently, so will you make progress” in divine love. Do not expect anything from those sensitive and slothful people who reject the cross when it approaches them, and who are careful not to seek out crosses. What are they but an untilled soil which will produce nothing but thorns because it has not been dug up, harrowed and turned over by an experienced farmer? They are like stagnant water, which is unfit for either washing or drinking.
Carry your cross cheerfully and you will draw from it an all-powerful strength which none of your enemies will be able to resist, and you will find in it a delight beyond anything you have known. Indeed, brethren, the true earthly paradise is found in suffering for Christ.
Ask any of the saints, and they will tell you they have never tasted a banquet more delicious for the spirit than when undergoing the severest torments. “Let all the torments of the devil come upon me,” said St. Ignatius the Martyr. “Let me suffer or die,” said St. Teresa of Avila. “Not death but suffering,” said St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi. “May I suffer and be despised for your sake,” said Blessed John of the Cross. And many others have spoken in the same terms, as we read in their lives.
My dear brothers and sisters, have faith in the word of God, for the Holy Spirit tells us that when we suffer cheerfully for God, the cross is the source of every kind of joy for all kinds of people. The joy that comes from the cross is greater than that of a poor man who suddenly comes into a fortune, or of a peasant who is raised to the throne; greater than the joy of a trader who becomes a millionaire; than of a military leader over the victories he has won; than of prisoners released from their chains. In short, imagine the greatest joy that can be experienced on earth, and then realise that the happiness of the one who bears his sufferings in the right way contains, and even surpasses, all of them.
AnaStpaul 