Carrying your cross.

"You must try to continually overcome yourself in those daily stuggles that the Lord presents to you." "Don't desire anything but what you are; concentrate on perfecting yourself and on carrying crosses, either small or large, that you will encounter on your journey to Heaven."- Back of a Padre Pio prayer card.

Every person that is living in this world goes through suffering. Maybe a small amount, maybe a large amount. But, no matter what the amount is, it's not easy.

What is the point in carrying our crosses? What does it mean to "carry our cross"?

To carry your cross, is to give up the right and expectation that you are not the one in control of your life. When you choose to carry your cross, you're making the choice by saying: "I'm dead, and Christ lives within me. This is no longer MY life. I live for CHRIST now." It involves suffering. It involves dying to self. It involves putting all your trust in God and letting Him take over.

Carrying our cross is day to day struggle, and we all have a choices we have to make. We can make good choices, or bad choices. A good choice would be this:

Let's say you can't stand this one person at school/work. You have the opportunity to complain about this person all the time, and be mean to this person, or you can simply smile whenever you see them. You can even pray for them. You can take this hardship and turn it into a wonderful thing. You can let it transform your soul.

You see, carrying our cross is a good thing! Because through suffering, there is love! It's difficult, but it's what we are all called to do. We must suffer and die to ourselves in order to carry our cross. And the best way to get a sense of suffering is through prayer. Especially through the Rosary. Our Blessed Mother will grant us the knowledge of her Son. She will help us understand what He went through. She will grant us the graces to get through each day if we ask. She wants us to ask.

St. Teresa of Avila said:

"We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to
bear the greatest trials."

Because they understood suffering. They didn't suffer alone, instead they took it, and walked with Christ. The Passion is the greatest example of love that we have to look at.

We should strive to emulate the Saints that DID go through hardships. That DID turn to God.

That DIDN'T give up. St. Monica is a wonderful example. She prayed for YEARS for her son (St. Augustine) to come back to the Catholic Faith. That must've caused great suffering, impatience, but she didn't give up. And now look at St. Augustine! He's a pretty well known Saint!

Our problems and situations may seem too much for us to handle, but God would never give us anything that we couldn't get through. It might be possible that we need help. Maybe from a friend...someone that can pray for us, give advice, just to help ease the burden.

The best thing we can do is pray without ceasing.