Saints’ Quotes on Redemptive Suffering

Suffering is something we all hate, whether it’s physical, mental, spiritual, financial, or familial. However, it’s something that everyone on earth has to go through.  Because of Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden, it has become our lot in life.  But the good news is that suffering can be salvific if and only if we let it.

Case in point: the two thieves on the cross next to Jesus. They both suffered equally, dying a very cruel death. But the bad thief on the left of Jesus wasted his suffering, cursing and blaspheming the whole time, demanding that Jesus save them. The good thief on the right, however, confessed his sin to Jesus the High Priest, received absolution, and was the first man to enter paradise since Adam had been expelled.  So the lesson learned here is to suffer with humility, confess your sins to God, and unite your sufferings with Jesus’ great passion.

Catholic Saints Who Suffered

There has never been a Catholic saint who hasn’t suffered mightily.  The Blessed Virgin Mary suffered the ignominy of being with child before living with Joseph, and got to see her sinless Son beaten, mocked, spit on, and crucified. That’s why she is known as the Queen of Martyrs, since she suffered more than anyone else besides Jesus. St. Peter was crucified, and St. Paul was beheaded after being stoned, snakebit, beaten, and imprisoned. In our day, St. Maximilian Kolbe was put in a starvation bunker by the Nazis at Auschwitz and finally murdered by a shot of carbolic acid.  St. Padre Pio suffered from the stigmata of Jesus for fifty years! But in each case, they didn’t curse or blaspheme, but instead, offered their sufferings up to Jesus in unity with his, for the salvation of souls. Victim souls, chosen by God, do this on a daily basis. The important thing to always remember is that suffering has a spiritual side to it, that we can tap into, not only for our salvation but for others as well. Suffering also does two other things:

• It is God’s way of testing us to see if we really love Him;
• It chastises us for our sins and teaches obedience to the commandments of God.

Prayer to Unite Our Sufferings With Those of Jesus

Here is a prayer to unite your sufferings with those of Jesus’ passion, to be said daily:

Oh my loving Jesus, my heart suffers and longs to be consumed by Your Sacred Heart that was pierced  by the  soldier’s sword. As I contemplate the mystery of Your Cross, and Your five holy wounds, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary I unite all of my misery with Yours, now and forever, knowing that your Holy Passion will sanctify my suffering. I offer it up for the conversion of all of the poor sinners here on earth, for the release of the poor souls in purgatory, and for the holiness of all priests, all religious, and all families.Amen.

Saints’ Quotes on Suffering

The Saints, our ancestors in heaven already, left us a plethora of great quotes on suffering. While they are not scriptural, they are a part of Sacred Tradition and therefore are worthy of study.

Always remember to love your neighbor; always prefer the one who tries your patience, who test your virtue, because with her you can always merit: suffering is love; the Law is Love (Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified ,”The Little Arab”).

You will be consoled according to the greatness of your sorrow and affliction; the greater the suffering, the greater will be the reward (St. Mary Magdalen de’Pazzi).

For Jesus Christ I am prepared to suffer still more (Saint Maximilian Kolbe).

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering (Saint Augustine of Hippo).

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 Saint Gregory the Great).

Nothing afflicts the heart of Jesus so much as to see all His sufferings of no avail to so many (Saint John Mary Vianney),

One day, I saw two roads. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end of the road without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And there numbers were so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness, and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, #153).

If you really want to love Jesus, first learn to suffer, because suffering teaches you to love (St. Gemma Galgani).

Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven.

When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: “Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions. We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the sons of God and perfect happiness of soul.
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 (Saint Rose of Lima).

If you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross. Great patience occurs in two ways: either when one patiently suffers much, or when one suffers things which one is able to avoid and yet does not avoid. Christ endured much on the cross, and did so patiently, because when he suffered he did not threaten; he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth (St. Thomas Aquinas).

Oh, if you had tasted the delights with which God fills the souls of those who serve him and suffer for him, how would you condemn all that the world can promise! I now begin to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, since for his love I am in prison, where I suffer much. But I assure you, that when I am fainting with hunger, God hath fortified me by his sweet consolations, so that I have looked upon myself as well recompensed for his service. And though I were yet to pass many years in prison, the time would appear short, through the extreme desire which I feel of suffering for him, who even here so well repays our labors. Besides other sickness, I have been afflicted with a continual fever a hundred days without any remedies or proper nourishment. All this time my heart was so full of joy that it seemed to me too narrow to contain it. I have never felt any equal to it, and I thought myself at the gates of paradise (Blessed Charles Spinola).

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).

Dear brothers and sisters, I pray God may open your eyes and let you see what hidden treasures he bestows on us in the trials from which the world thinks only to flee. Shame turns into honor when we seek God’s glory. Present affliction become the source of heavenly glory. To those who suffer wounds in fighting his battles God opens his arms in loving, tender friendship. That is why Jesus tells us that if we want to join him, we shall travel the way he took. It is surely not right that the Son of God should go his way on the path of shame while the sons of men walk the way of worldly honor: “The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant greater than his master (Saint John of Avila).

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 (Saint Ignatius of Loyola).

He who wishes to love God does not truly love Him if he has not an ardent and constant desire to suffer for His sake (St. Aloysius Gonzaga).

Suffering born in a Christian way is the condition that God, the author of all grace and of all the gifts that lead to salvation, has established for granting us glory (St. Padre Pio).

Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the Redemption was accomplished. He is called to share in that suffering through which all human suffering has also been redeemed. In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ (St. John Paul II).

Although storms rage around us often, and thunder resounds, if we are unreservedly dedicated to the Immaculata (Mary), we can be sure that nothing will happen to us, as long as our best and dearest Mother will not allow it. We shall rest sweetly as we labor and suffer for the salvation of souls. Thus, we will show how we love the Father and our best friend Jesus and his dearest Mother, for suffering is the school of love (St. Maximilian Kolbe).

I always want to see you behaving like a brave soldier who does not complain about his own suffering but takes his comrades’ wounds seriously and treats his own as nothing but scratches (Saint Therese of Lisieux).

Additional Resource on Suffering

For more information on the Catholic view of suffering, St. John Paul II wrote an encyclical on salvation and suffering, SALVIFICI DOLORIS.