When we feel the weight of the Cross, the Lord invites us to come to Him. "Come, not to give an account.... Do not be afraid when you hear me speak of a yoke, for it is easy; do not be afraid if I speak of a burden, for it is light ". And then, together with Christ, all the fatigue, all that may be troublesome and difficult in our lives, becomes pleasant. The sacrifice, the pain with Christ is not harsh or burdensome, but pleasant. "All that is hard... is made bearable by love... What does not love do? See how those who love work: they do not feel what they suffer, they increase their efforts as the difficulties increase ".
Union with God through adversity, of whatever kind, is a grace of God that he is always ready to grant us; but, like all graces, it demands the exercise of our own freedom, our correspondence, not to discard the means that he puts within our reach, in a singular way, to know how to open our soul in the spiritual direction if on some occasion the Cross seems heavier to us. "A gentle wind is not the same as a hurricane. With the first, anyone resists: it is child's play, a parody of struggle.
"Little contradictions, shortages, hardships.... You carried them gladly, and lived the inner joy of thinking: now I really work for God, because we have the Cross!....
"But, my poor son: the hurricane arrived, and you feel a wobble, a blow that would uproot centenary trees. That..., inside and outside. Trust! It will not be able to uproot your Faith and your Love, nor take you out of your way..., if you do not move away from the "head", if you feel the unity ".
The Lord waits for us in the tabernacle to encourage and encourage us always... and to tell us that the heaviest part of the Cross was carried by Him, on the way to Calvary. Together with Him we learn to bear with peace and serenity that which is most costly and difficult for us: "Even if everything sinks and comes to an end, even if events happen contrary to plan, with tremendous adversity, nothing is gained by being troubled. Moreover, remember the confident prayer of the prophet: "The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King, He it is who will save us."
"Pray it devoutly, daily, to adapt your conduct to the designs of Providence, which governs us for our good.
From the persecution suffered by those first faithful in the faith, new conversions arose in unexpected places. From the difficulties and contradictions that the Lord will allow in our life, countless fruits of apostolate will be born, our love will become strong and delicate, and our soul will emerge more purified from those trials, if we have known how to bear them with serenity and close to Christ. At the end of our prayer we tell the Lord that we want to seek him in all circumstances - professional, age, health, environment... -, some favorable and others adverse, and in the midst of the interior or exterior difficulties that we may have.
"At the hour of the contempt of the Cross, Our Lady is there, close to her Son, determined to suffer the same fate. -Let us lose the fear of behaving as responsible Christians, when it is not comfortable in the environment where we live: She will help us "