Suffering, a Caress from God
St Josemaria recalls the story behind no. 208 in The Way: "Blessed be suffering..." He explains that suffering is not evil but a caress from God.
"He waits for us every day, in the laboratory, in the operating theatre, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home and in all the immense panorama of work.”(Saint Josemaría)
St Josemaria recalls the story behind no. 208 in The Way: "Blessed be suffering..." He explains that suffering is not evil but a caress from God.
In a get-together in southern Spain in 1993, Bishop Alvaro del Portillo speaks abut the meaning of suffering and illness, which are a true "vocation to the Cross."
Saint Josemaría’s experience of suffering in his own family was a very practical way of attaining the maturity that others reach only after many years.
Rodolfo and Lucia suffered the loss of their small son. How can people see God’s hand in events like that? St Josemaria replies to someone in a similar situation, who asked him how to bear suffering with joy.
St Josemaria often recalled with gratitude how his parents introduced him step by step to the Christian way of life