"IF YOU LOVE ME, TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME."

The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from
eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift
from His inmost Heart. This cross He now sends you
He has considered with His all-knowing eyes,
understood with His Divine mind, tested with His
wise justice, warmed with loving arms and weighed
with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too
large and not one ounce too heavy for you.
He has blessed it with His holy Name, anointed
it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation,
taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then
sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from
God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God.

---St. Francis de Sales


Little headaches, little heartaches,
Little griefs of every day,
Little trials and vexations.
How they throng around our way!

One great cross, immense and heavy,
So it seems to our weak will,
Might be borne with resignation,
But these many small ones kill.

Yet all life is formed of small things,
Little leaves make up the trees,
Many tiny drops of water
Blending, make the mighty seas.

So these many little burdens
Pressing on our hearts so hard,
All uniting, form a life's work,
Meriting a grand reward.

Let us not then by impatience
Mar the beauty of the whole,
'But for love of Jesus bear all
In the silence of our soul.

Asking Him for grace sufficient
To sustain us thro' each loss,
And to treasure each small offering
As a splinter from His Cross.

I asked Jesus

"How much do You love me?

"this much," He answered.

then He stretched out His arms

and died.

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© Tina's Prayer Gate
2001