“The first step to healing is not a step away from the pain, but a step toward it.”

—Henri Nouwen

I am deeply convinced that each human being suffers in a way no other human being suffers.  No doubt, we can make comparisons; we can talk about more or less suffering, but, in the final analysis, your pain and my pain are so deeply personal that comparing them can bring scarcely any consolation or comfort.  In fact, I am more grateful for a person who can acknowledge that I am very alone in my pain than for someone who tries to tell me there are many others who have a similar or worse pain.

—Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World

“When you think of the mystical experience of many saints, you may ask yourself whether joy and suffering aren’t aspects of the same phenomenon on a very high level. An analogy, crazy for sure, comes to mind: extreme cold burns.  It seems nearly certain, no, it is certain, that we can only go to God through suffering and that this suffering becomes joy because it finally is the same thing.”

—Jacques Maritain

It is surprising that many speak only of pains in sickness: without mentioning the blessings and benefits of sickness! Some could reach a state of grumble and distress, and even they could ask God “Why have you done all this to me?” But you should not be like that. But in your sickness you thank God for the blessings you received because of this sickness: Say to Him, I thank you God for this sickness, which gave me more time for prayer or repentance and granted me humbleness and broken heart and a feeling of my weakness. I thank you God for this sickness which made me feel the love of people. I thank you because this sickness gave me a period of isolation which I spent in bed – which was necessary to me – at least to search out my soul and be with you.

—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, The Life of Thanksgiving

Almost without exception the most beautiful, selfless people I’ve met are ones who’ve experienced personal tragedy.

—Donald Miller, Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy

“The natural property of the lemon tree is such that it lifts its branches upwards when it has no fruit, but the more the branches bend down the more fruit they bear. Those who have the mind to understand will grasp the meaning of this.”

—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

If, desirous of bringing them to self-knowledge and of leading them to the right path of perfection, God sends them afflictions and sickness, or allows them to be persecuted, by which means He habitually tests His true and real servants, this test immediately shows what is hidden in their hearts, and how deeply they are corrupted by pride. For whatever affliction may visit them, they refuse to bend their necks to the yoke of God’s will and to trust in His righteous and secret judgments. They do not want to follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Who humbled Himself and suffered for our sakes, and they refuse to be humble, to consider themselves the lowest of all creatures, and to regard their persecutors as their good friends, the tools of the divine bounty shown to them and helpers in their salvation.

—Lorenzo Scupoli, Unseen Warfare