St. Padre Pio Regarding Tribulations

 

Tribulation & Trials by St. Bernard, abbot

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

I am with him in tribulation

From a sermon St. Bernard, abbot

I am with him in tribulation, says God.  Shall I then seek anything here below apart from tribulation?  For me it is good to cling to God, and also to put my hope in the Lord God, because he has said: I will rescue him and glorify him.

I am with him in tribulation.  My delight, he says, is to be with the sons of men—Emmanuel, God with us.  

He himself descended to be near those 

who are saddened in spirit, to be with us in our tribulation.  

One day we shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord—provided, however, that we are concerned here below to have him with us, as our companion on the journey, who will restore us to our true country or, better, as one who is now our way and our true country hereafter. 

It is good for me to be sad, O Lord, as long as you are with me, rather than to be a king apart from you, to feast without you, to boast without you.  It is better for me to embrace you in tribulations, to have you with me in the furnace, than to be without you in heaven.  For what do I have in heaven apart from you?  What have I desired on earth?  Gold is tested in the furnace, and the just by the trial of tribulation.  There, yes there, you are present with them, Lord.  You are there in the midst of those gathered in your name, as you were once with the three young men in the fiery furnace.

Why are we afraid, why do we hesitate, 

why do we flee from this furnace?  

The fire rages, 

but the Lord is with us in tribulation.  

If God is with us who can be against us?  And if he then rescues us, who will steal us from his hand?  Lastly, if he honors us, who can dishonor us?  If he honors us, who can humiliate us?

I will fill him with length of days.  It is as if he said more clearly:  I know what he desires, I know what he thirsts for, and what he likes.  He likes neither silver nor gold, pleasure nor curiosity, nor any of the honors of the world.  All this he considers as loss; all this he despises, counting it as dung.  He has totally emptied himself, and he does not allow himself to be concerned with things he knows can never satisfy him.  He knows in whose image he had been made, of what greatness he is capable; he does not strive to raise himself up only to be cut down from the highest state.

So I will fill him 

with length of days, 

for only the true light can refresh, 

only the eternal can fill him.  

Indeed this length of days 

has no end, 

this light knows 

no setting, and 

this fullness can never 

turn to disgust.

Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours, According to the Roman Rite, Ordinary Time, Catholic Book Publishing Corp.  New York, 1975

True Knight of Christ -- by Thomas a Kempis

Be a True Knight of Christ

Imitation of Christ 

by Thomas a Kempis

 "Be a True Knight of Christ"

That There is No Complete Security from Temptation in This Life

Our Lord says to His servant:  You will never be safe from temptation and tribulation in this life, and therefore spiritual armor is necessary for you as long as you live.  You are among your enemies and will be troubled and vexed by them on every side; unless you use everywhere the shield of patience, you will not long preserve yourself unwounded.  And more than that—if you do not set your heart strongly on Me, with a ready will to suffer all things patiently for Me, you cannot long bear this struggle, or come to the reward of the blessed saints.  It behooves you, therefore, resolutely to forego many things and to use a strong hand against all the assaults of the enemy.  To him who overcomes is promised the food of angels; to him who is overcome is left much misery.

If you seek rest in this life, how will you, then, come to everlasting rest?  Do not determine to have rest here, but to have patience, and seek true rest not on earth, but in heaven; not in man or in any creature, but in God alone, where true rest is.  You ought gladly to suffer all things for the love of God:  all labors, sorrows, temptations, vexations; all anguish, need, sickness, injuries, evil sayings, reproaches; all oppressions, confusions, corrections, and despisings.  These greatly help a man to virtue; those prove the true knight of Christ and prepare for him a heavenly crown.  And I shall reward him with everlasting reward for his short labor, with infinite glory for his transitory confusion.

Do you believe that you will always have spiritual comfort after your own will?  No, no; My saints did not have such spiritual comfort.  They had many great griefs and various temptations and great desolation, but they bore all with patience, and trusted more in Me than in themselves, for they knew well that the sufferings of this world cannot of themselves merit the glory that is ordained for them in the kingdom of heaven.  Would you expect to have immediately what others before you could scarcely obtain after great weeping and labor?

Await patiently the coming of the Lord.  Do His bidding manfully, be comforted in Him, and do not mistrust Him.  Do not quit His service because of suffering or fear, but expose your body and soul constantly in His honor, in all good physical and spiritual toil, and He will reward you most fully for your good work, and will be with you and help you in every trouble that may befall you.  So may it be.

in hoc signo vinces "in this sign you will conquer".