              LETTER TO THE FRIENDS OF THE CROSS

1.   Since the divine Cross keeps me in retirement and
prevents me from speaking to you personally, I cannot, and I
do not even desire to express by word of mouth the feelings of
my heart on the excellence and the practices of your
Association in the sacred Cross of Christ.
     However, on this last day of my retreat, I leave the
delights of the interior life to develop on paper a few little
points on the Cross with which to pierce your generous hearts. 
Would to God I could use the blood of my veins rather than the
ink of my pen!  But, alas, even if blood were required, mine
would not be good enough.  I pray rather that the Spirit of
the living God may be the life, strength, and guiding hand of
this letter; that his unction may be my ink, the holy Cross my
pen, and your hearts my book.

               I. EXCELLENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION

2.   Friends of the Cross, you are like crusaders united to
fight against the world; not like Religious who retreat from
the world lest they be overcome, but like brave and valiant
warriors on the battle-field, who refuse to retreat or even
yield an inch.  Be brave and fight courageously.
     You must be joined together in a close union of mind and
heart, which is stronger and far more formidable to the world
and to hell than are the armed forces of a great nation to its
enemies.  Evil spirits are united to destroy you; you must be
united to crush them.  The avaricious are united to make money
and amass gold and silver; you must combine your efforts to
acquire the eternal treasures hidden in the Cross.  Pleasure-
seekers unite to enjoy themselves; you must be united to
suffer.

A. Greatness of Your Title

3.   You call yourselves "Friends of the Cross."  What a
glorious title!  I must confess that I am charmed and
captivated by it.  It is brighter than the sun, higher than
the heavens, more magnificent and resplendent than all the
titles given to kings and emperors.  It is the glorious title
of Jesus Christ, true God and true man.  It is the genuine
title of a Christian.

4.   But, if I am captivated by its splendour, I am no less
frightened by its responsibility, for it is a title that
embraces difficult and inescapable obligations, summed up in
the words of the Holy Spirit, "A chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a people set apart."
     A Friend of the Cross is one chosen by God, from among
thousands who live only according to their reason and senses,
to be wholly divine, raised above mere reason and completely
opposed to material things, living in the light of pure faith,
and inspired by a deep love of the Cross.
     A Friend of the Cross is an all-powerful king, a champion
who triumphs over the devil, the world and the flesh in their
three-fold concupiscence.  He crushes the pride of Satan by
his love of humiliations; he overcomes the greed of the world
by his love of poverty; he retrains the sensuality of the
flesh by his love of suffering.
     A Friend of the Cross is one who is holy and set apart
from the things that are visible, for his heart is raised
above all that is transient and perishable, and his homeland
is in heaven; he travels through this world like a visitor and
a pilgrim, and, far from setting his heart on it, he looks on
it with indifference and tramples it underfoot with contempt.
     A Friend of the Cross is a glorious trophy gained by the
crucified Christ on Calvary, in union with his holy Mother. 
He is a Benoni or Benjamin, a child of sorrow and of the right
hand, conceived in the suffering heart of Jesus, born from his
pierced side, and baptised in his blood.  True to his origin,
his life embraces the cross, and death to the world, the
flesh, and sin, so as to live here below a life hidden with
Christ in God.
     In short, a perfect Friend of the Cross is a true Christ-
bearer, or rather another Christ, so that he can truly say, "I
live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who
lives in me."

5.   My dear Friends of the Cross, do you live in accordance
with the noble title you bear?  Or, at least, have you a real
desire and a sincere determination to do so with the help of
God's grace, under the shelter of Christ's Cross and of our
Lady of Sorrows?  Are you taking the means necessary for this? 
Are you walking along the true way of life, which is the
narrow and stony way of Calvary?  Or are you, without perhaps
realizing it, on the wide road of the world which leads to
perdition?  Are you aware that there is a highway which is to
all appearances a straight and safe road, but which really
leads to eternal death?

6.   Do you clearly distinguish the voice of God and his grace
from that of the world and of human nature?  Do you listen to
the voice of God, our heavenly Father, pronouncing his three-
fold malediction on all who follow the desires of the world:
"Woe, woe, woe to all the people on earth;" the Father who
stretches out his arms to you in loving appeal, "Come out, my
chosen people," dear friends of my Son's Cross, away from
worldlings, who have been cursed by myself, rejected by my
Son, and condemned by my Holy Spirit?  Beware of following
their counsels, of sitting in their company, or even lingering
on the road they take.  Hasten away from the infamous Babylon. 
Listen only to the voice of my beloved Son and follow only
him, whom I have given you to be your way, your truth, your
life, and your model.  (Ipsum audite.)  "Listen to him."
     Do you listen to the voice of Jesus who, burdened with
his Cross, calls out to you, "Come after me; anyone who
follows me will not be walking in the dark; be brave; I have
conquered the world."?

B. The Two Companies

7.   My dear brothers and sisters, there are two companies
that appear before you each day:  the followers of Christ and
the followers of the world.
     Our dear Saviour's company is on the right, climbing up a
narrow road, made all the narrower by the world's immorality. 
Our Master leads the way, barefooted, crowned with thorns,
covered with blood, and laden with a heavy cross.  Those who
follow him, though most valiant, are only a handful, either
because his quiet voice is not heard amid the tumult of the
world, or because people lack the courage to follow him in his
poverty, sufferings, humiliations and other crosses which his
servants must carry all the days of their life.

8.   On the left hand is the company of the world or of the
devil.  This is far more numerous, more imposing and more
illustrious, at least in appearance.  Most of the fashionable
people run to join it, all crowded together, although the road
is wide and is continually being made wider than ever by the
crowds that pour along it like a torrent.  It is strewn with
flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and
attractions, and paved with gold and silver.

9.   On the right, the little groups which follow Jesus speak
about sorrow and penance, prayer and indifference to worldly
things.  They continually encourage one another saying, "Now
is the time to suffer and to mourn, to pray and do penance, to
live in retirement and poverty, to humble and mortify
ourselves; for those who do not possess the spirit of Christ,
which is the spirit of the cross, do not belong to him.  Those
who belong to Christ have crucified all self-indulgent
passions and desires.  We must be true images of Christ or be
eternally lost."
     "Have confidence," they say to each other.  If God is on
our side, within us and before us, who can be against us?  He
who is within us is stronger than the one who is in the world. 
The servant is not greater than his master.  This slight and
temporary distress we suffer will bring us a tremendous and
everlasting glory.  The number of those who will be saved is
not as great as some people imagine.  It is only the brave and
the daring who take heaven by storm, where only those are
crowned who strive to live according to the law of the Gospel
and not according to the maxims of the world.  Let us fight
with all our strength, let us run with all speed, that we may
attain our goal and win the crown.
     Such are some of the heavenly counsels with which the
Friends of the Cross inspire each other.

10.  Those who follow the world, on the contrary, urge each
other to continue in their evil ways without scruple, calling
to one another day after day, "Let us eat and drink, sing and
dance, and enjoy ourselves.  God id good; he has not made us
to damn us.  He does not forbid us to amuse ourselves.  We
shall not be damned for so little.  We are not to be
scrupulous.  'No, you will not die'."

11.  Dear brothers and sisters, remember that our loving
Saviour has his eyes on you at this moment, and he says to
each one of you individually, "See how almost everyone deserts
me on the royal road of the Cross.  Pagans in their blindness
ridicule my Cross as foolishness; obstinate Jews are repelled
by it as by an object of horror; heretics pull it down and
break it to pieces as something contemptible.
     "Even my own people - and I say this with tears in my
eyes and grief in my heart - my own children whom I have
brought up and instructed in my ways, my members whom I have
quickened with my own Spirit, have turned their backs on me
and forsaken me by becoming enemies of my Cross.  'Will you
also go away?'  Will you also desert me by running away from
my Cross like the worldlings, who thus become so many
antichrists?  Will you also follow the world; despise the
poverty of my Cross in order to seek after wealth; shun the
sufferings of my Cross to look for enjoyment; avoid the
humiliations of my Cross in order to chase after the honours
of the world?  'There are many who pretend they are friends of
mine and protest that they love me, but in their hearts they
hate me.  I have many friends of my table, but very few of my
Cross.' (Imit. II, 11, 1)."

12.  At this loving appeal of Jesus, let us rise above our
human nature; let us not be seduced by our senses, as Eve was;
but keep our eyes fixed on Jesus crucified, who leads us in
our faith and brings it to perfection (Heb 12.2).  Let us keep
ourselves apart from the evil practices of the world; let us
show our love for Jesus in the best way, that is, through all
kinds of crosses.  Reflect well on these remarkable words of
our Saviour, "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let
him renounce himself, and take up his cross and follow me" (Mt
16.24; Lk 9.23).

          II.  THE PRACTICES OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

13.  Christian holiness consists in this:
     1. Resolving to become a saint: "If anyone wants to be a
follower of mine;"
     2. Self-denial: "Let him renounce himself;"
     3. Suffering: "Let him take up his cross;"
     4. Acting: "Let him follow me."

[A. If anyone wants to follow me]

14.  "If anyone," says our Lord, to point out the small number
of chosen ones willing to conform themselves to Christ
crucified by carrying their cross.  Their number is so small
that we would be dumbfounded if we knew it.
     It is so small that there is scarcely one in ten
thousand, as has been revealed to several saints, including
St. Simon Stylites (as is related by Abbot Nilus), St. Basil,
St. Ephrem and others.  It is so small that, should it please
God to gather them together, he would have to call them one by
one as he did of old through his prophet, "You will be
gathered one by one;" one from this country, one from that
province.

15.  "If anyone wants," if anyone has a genuine desire, a
determination, not prompted by nature, habit, self-love, self-
interest, or human respect, but by the all-conquering grace of
the Holy Spirit, which is not given to everyone.  "It is not
given to all men to know this mystery."
     In fact, only a few people have the knowledge of how to
live out the mystery of the Cross in daily life.  For a man to
climb Mount Calvary and allow himself to be nailed to the
cross with Christ in the midst of his own people, he must be
courageous, heroic, resolute; one who is close to God, and
treats with indifference the world and the devil, his own body
and his own desires; one who is determined to leave all
things, to undertake all things, and to suffer all things for
Christ.
     You must realise, my dear Friends of the Cross, that
should there be anyone among you without this determination,
he is only walking on one foot, flying with one wing.  He is
not worthy to be one of your company, since he is not worthy
to be called a Friend of the Cross, which we must, like Jesus,
love "with a generous mind and a willing heart."
     It only needs one half-hearted member to spoil the whole
group, like a mangy sheep.  If such a one has entered your
fold through the evil door of the world, then in the name of
Christ crucified drive him out as you would a wolf from the
flock.

16.  "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine."  If anyone
wants to follow me who so humbled and emptied myself that I
became a worm rather than a man; who came into the world only
to embrace the Cross, to set it in my heart, to love it from
my youth, to long for it all the days of my life, to carry it
joyfully, preferring it to all the joys and delights that
heaven and earth could offer, and not being content till I had
died in its divine embrace.

[B. Let him renounce himself]

17.  If anyone, therefore, wants to follow me thus abased and
crucified, he must glory, as I did, only in the poverty,
humiliations and sufferings of my Cross.  "Let him renounce
himself."
     Excluded, then, from the company of the Friends of the
Cross are those who take pride in their sufferings; the
worldly-wise, the intellectuals and the sceptics who are
attached to their own ideas and puffed up with their own
talents.  Away from you those endless talkers who make a great
show but produce nothing but vanity.  Away from you those so-
called devout Catholics who in their pride display the self-
sufficiency of proud Lucifer wherever they go, saying, "I am
not like the rest of men;" who cannot endure being blamed
without making some excuse, being attacked without answering
back, being humbled without exalting themselves.
     Be careful not to admit into your society those delicate
and sensitive people who are afraid of the slightest pin-
prick, who cry out and complain at the least pain, who know
nothing of the hair-shirt, the discipline or other instruments
of penance, and who mingle, with their fashionable devotions,
a most refined fastidiousness and a most studied lack of
mortification.

[C. Let him take up his cross]

18.  "Let him take up his cross," the one that is his.  Let
that man (or woman) so rare "far beyond the price of pearls,"
take up his cross joyfully, embrace it lovingly, and carry it
courageously on his shoulders, his own cross, and not that of
another - his own cross which I, in my wisdom, designed for
him in every detail of number, measure and weight; his own
cross which I have fashioned with my own hands and with great
exactness as regards its four dimensions of length, breadth,
thickness and depth; his own cross, which out of love for him
I have carved from a piece of the one I bore to Calvary; his
own cross, which is the greatest gift I can bestow upon my
chosen ones on earth; his own cross, whose thickness is made
up of the loss of one's possessions, humiliations, contempt,
sufferings, illnesses and spiritual trials, which come to him
daily till his death in accordance with my providence; his own
cross, whose length consists of a certain period of days or
months enduring slander, or lying on a sick-bed, or being
forced to beg, or suffering from temptations, dryness,
desolation, and other interior trials; his own cross, whose
breadth is made up of the most harsh and bitter circumstances
brought about by relatives, friends, servants; his own cross,
whose depth is made up of the hidden trials I shall inflict on
him without his being able to find any comfort from other
people, for they also, under my guidance, will turn away from
him and join with me in making him suffer.

19.  "Let him take up," that is, let him carry his cross and
not drag it, or shake it off, or lighten it, or hide it. 
Instead, let him lift it on high and carry it without
impatience or annoyance, without intentional complaint or
grumbling, without hesitation or concealment, without shame or
human respect.
     "Let him take it up" and set it on his brow, saying with
St. Paul, "The only thing I can boast about is the Cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ."
     Let him carry it on his shoulders like our Lord, that it
may become the source of his victories and the sceptre of his
power:  "Dominion is laid upon his shoulders."
     Let him set it in his heart, where it may, like the
burning bush of Moses, burn day and night with the pure love
of God without being consumed!

20.  "The cross":  let him carry it, for nothing is so
necessary, so beneficial, so agreeable, or so glorious as to
suffer something for Jesus Christ.

                                  [1. Nothing is so necessary]

21.  Dear Friends of the Cross, we are all sinners; there is
not one of us who has not deserved hell, and I more than
anyone.  Our offences have to be punished either in this world
or in the next.  If we suffer for them now, we shall not
suffer for them after death.  If we willingly accept
punishment for them, this punishment will be an act of God's
love; for it is mercy which holds sway and chastises in this
world, and not strict justice.  This punishment will be light
and temporary, accompanied by consolation and merit, and
followed by rewards both here and in eternity.

22.  But if the punishment due for our sins is put off till
the next world, then it will be God's avenging justice, which
puts everything to fire and sword, which will inflict the
punishment, a dreadful, indescribable punishment:  "Who
understands the power of your anger?"  Judgement without
mercy, without relief, without merit, without limit and
without end.  Yes, without end.  That serious sin you
committed in a few brief moments, that deliberate evil thought
which now escapes your memory, that word carried away by the
wind, that brief action against the law of God - they shall
all be punished for eternity, in the company of the devils in
hell, so long as God is God.  And this avenging God will have
no pity on your torments, on your cries and tears, violent
enough to cleave the rocks.  To suffer forever, without merit,
without mercy, and without end.

23.  Do we think of this, my dear brothers and sisters, when
we have to suffer some trial in this world?  How fortunate we
are to be able to exchange a never-ending and unprofitable
punishment for a temporary and rewarding one just by bearing
our cross with patience!  How many of our debts are still
unpaid!  How many sins have we committed which, despite a
sincere confession and heartfelt contrition, will have to be
atoned for in purgatory for many years, simply because in this
world we contented ourselves with a few slight penances!
     Ah, let us settle our debts with good grace in this life
by cheerfully carrying our cross.  In the next, a strict
account is demanded down to the last penny, to the last idle
word.  If we were able to snatch from the devil the book of
death in which he has entered all our sins and the punishment
due to them, what a heavy debt we should find, and how
delighted we should be to suffer for long years on earth
rather than a single day in the world to come!

24.  Friends of the Cross, do you not flatter yourselves that
you are, or desire to become, the friends of God?  Well then,
resolve to drink the cup that you must drink in order to
become his friends:  "They drank the cup of the Lord and
became the friends of God."  Benjamin, the beloved son of
Jacob, was given the cup, while his other brothers received
nothing but wheat.  The beloved disciple of Christ, so dear to
his Master's heart, went up to Calvary and drank of his cup. 
"Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?"  To desire
God's glory is excellent, but to desire and pray for it
without resolving to suffer all things is both foolish and
extravagant:  "You do not know what you are asking..."  "We
must experience many hardships before we enter the kingdom of
heaven."  To enter this kingdom you must suffer many crosses
and tribulations.

25.  Rightly you glory in being God's children.  You should
glory, then, in the correction your heavenly Father has given
you and will give you in the future, for he chastises all his
children.  If you are not included among his beloved children,
you are, alas, included among those who are lost, as St.
Augustine points out.  He also tells us, "The one who does not
mourn in this world like a stranger and a pilgrim will not
rejoice in the world to come as a citizen of heaven."
     If your heavenly Father does not send you some worthwhile
crosses from time to time, it is because he no longer cares
about you and is angry with you; he is treating you as an
outsider, no longer belonging to his family and deserving his
protection, or as an illegitimate child, who, having no claim
to a share of the inheritance, deserves neither care nor
correction.

26.  Friends of the Cross, disciples of a crucified God, the
mystery of the Cross is a mystery unknown to the Gentiles,
rejected by the Jews, and despised by heretics and bad
Catholics.  But it is the great mystery you must learn to
practice in the school of Christ, and which can only be learnt
from him.  You will look in vain in all the schools of ancient
times for a philosopher who taught it; in vain you will appeal
to the senses or to reason to throw some light on it.  It is
only Jesus, through his all-powerful grace, who can teach you
this mystery and give you the ability to appreciate it.
     Strive then to become proficient in this all-important
science under your great Master, and you will understand all
other sciences, for it contains them all in an eminent degree. 
It is our natural and supernatural philosophy, our divine and
mystic theology, our philosopher's stone, which by patience
transforms the basest metals into precious ones, the bitterest
pains into delight, poverty into riches, the most profound
humiliations into glory.  The one among you who knows best how
to carry his cross, even though in other things he does not
know A from B, is the most learned of all.
     The great St. Paul returned from the third heaven, where
he learned mysteries hidden even from the angels, and he
proclaimed that he did not know, nor did he want to know
anything but Christ crucified.  Rejoice, then, you ordinary
Christian, man or woman, without any schooling or intellectual
abilities, for if you know how to suffer cheerfully, you know
more than a doctor of Sorbonne University who does not know
how to suffer as you do.

27.  You are the members of Christ, a wonderful honour indeed,
but one which entails suffering.  If the Head is crowned with
thorns, can the members expect to be crowned with roses?  If
the Head is jeered at and covered with dust on the road to
Calvary, can the members expect to be sprinkled with perfumes
on a throne?  If the Head has no pillow on which to rest, can
the members expect to recline on feathers and down?  That
would be unthinkable!
     No, no, my dear Companions of the Cross, do not deceive
yourselves.  Those Christians you see everywhere, fashionably
dressed, fastidious in manner, full of importance and dignity,
are not real disciples, real members of Christ crucified.  To
think they are would be an insult to our thorn-crowned Head
and to the truth of the Gospel.  How many so-called Christians
imagine they are members of our Saviour when in reality they
are his treacherous persecutors, for while they make the sign
of the cross with their hand, in their hearts they are its
enemies!
     If you are guided by the same spirit, if you live with
the same life as Jesus, your thorn-crowned Head, you must
expect only thorns, lashes and nails; that is, nothing but the
cross; for the disciple must be treated like the master and
the members like the head.  And if you were to be offered, as
was St. Catherine of Sienna, a crown of thorns and one of
roses, you should, like her, choose the crown of thorns
without hesitation and press it upon your head, so as to be
like Christ.

     28.  You know that you are living temples of the Holy
Spirit and that, like living stones, you are to be set by the
God of love into the building of the heavenly Jerusalem.  And
so you must expect to be shaped, cut and chiselled under the
hammer of the cross; otherwise, you would remain rough stones,
good for nothing but to be cast aside.  Be careful that you do
not cause the hammer to recoil when it strikes you; respect
the chisel that is carving you and the hand that is shaping
you.  It may be that this skilful and loving craftsman wants
you to have an important place in his eternal edifice, or to
be one of the most beautiful works of art in his heavenly
kingdom.  So let him do what he pleases; he loves you, he
knows what he is doing, he has had experience.  His strokes
are skilful and directed by love; not one will miscarry unless
your impatience makes it do so.

29.  The Holy Spirit compares the cross sometimes to a
winnowing-fan which separates the grain from the chaff and the
dust.  Like the grain before the fan, let yourselves be shaken
up and tossed about without resisting; for the Father of the
household is winnowing you and will soon put you in his
granary.  At other times the Holy Spirit compares the cross to
a fire which removes the rust from the iron by the intensity
of its heat.  Our God is a consuming fire dwelling in our
souls through his cross in order to purify them without
consuming them, as he did of old in the burning bush.
     Again, he likens the cross to the crucible of a forge in
which the good metal is refined and the dross vanishes in
smoke; the metal is purified by fire, while the impurities
disappear in the heat of the flames.  And it is in the
crucible of tribulation and temptation that the true friends
of the cross are purified by their constancy in sufferings,
while its enemies are swept away through their impatience and
murmuring.

30.  My dear Friends of the Cross, see before you a great
cloud of witnesses who, without saying a word, prove what I
have been saying.  Consider, for example, that upright man
Abel, who was killed by his brother;  and Abraham, an upright
man who was a stranger on earth; Lot, an upright man driven
from his own country; Jacob, an upright man persecuted by his
brother; Tobit, an upright man stricken with blindness; Job,
an upright man who was impoverished, humbled, and covered with
sores from head to foot.

31.  Consider the countless apostles and martyrs who were
bathed in their own blood; the virgins and confessors who were
reduced to poverty, humbled, persecuted or exiled.  They can
all say with St. Paul, "Look upon Jesus, the pioneer and
perfecter of our faith," the faith we have in him and in his
Cross; it was necessary that he should suffer and so enter
through the Cross into his glory.
     At the side of Jesus, see Mary his Mother, who was never
stained with any sin, original or actual, yet whose pure and
loving heart was pierced through.  If I had time to dwell on
the sufferings of Jesus and Mary, I could show that what we
suffer is nothing compared to theirs.

32.  Who, then, would dare claim to be exempt from the cross? 
Which of us would not hasten to the place where he knows the
cross awaits him?  Who would refuse to say with St. Ignatius
of Antioch, "Come, fire and gibbet, wild beast and all the
torments of hell, that I may delight in the possession of
Christ."

33.  But if you are not willing to suffer patiently and carry
your cross with resignation like God's chosen ones, then you
will have to carry it, grumbling and complaining like those on
the road to damnation.  You will be like the two oxen that
drew the Ark of the Covenant, lowing as they went; like Simon
of Cyrene who unwillingly took up the very cross of Christ and
did nothing but complain while he carried it.  And in the end
you will be like the impenitent thief, who from the summit of
his cross plunged into the abyss.
     No, this accursed earth on which we live is not destined
to make us happy; in this land of darkness we cannot expect to
see clearly; there is no perfect calm on this stormy sea; we
can never avoid conflicts on this field of trial and battle;
we cannot escape being scratched on this thorn-covered earth. 
Willingly or unwillingly, all must carry their cross, both
those who serve God and those who do not.  Keep in mind the
words of the hymn:
          Three crosses stand on Calvary's height;
          One must be chosen, so choose aright;
          You must suffer like a saint or repentant thief,
          Or like a reprobate, in endless grief.
     That is to say, if you are not willing to suffer gladly
like Jesus, or patiently like the penitent thief, then you
will have to suffer like the unrepentant thief.  You will have
to drink the cup of bitterness to the dregs without the
consoling help of grace, and you will have to bear the whole
weight of your cross, deprived of the powerful support of
Christ.  You will even have to carry the deadly weight which
the devil will add to it by means of the impatience it will
cause you.  And after sharing the unhappiness of the
impenitent thief on earth, you will share his misery in
eternity.

                    [2. Nothing is so useful and so agreeable]

34.  But if, on the contrary, you suffer in the right way, the
cross will become a yoke that is easy and light, since Christ
himself will carry it with you.  It will give you wings, as it
were, to lift you to heaven; it will become your ship's mast,
bringing you smoothly and easily to the harbour of salvation.
     Carry your cross patiently, and it will be a light in
your spiritual darkness, for the one who has never suffered
trials is ignorant.
     Carry your cross cheerfully, and you will be filled with
divine love; for only in suffering can we dwell in the pure
love of Christ.
     Roses are only found among thorns.  It is the cross alone
which nourishes our love of God, as wood is the fuel which
feeds the fire.  Remember the beautiful saying in the
"Imitation of Christ", "In proportion as you do violence to
yourself, by suffering patiently, so will you make progress"
in divine love.
     Do not expect anything from those sensitive and slothful
people who reject the cross when it approaches them, and who
are careful not to seek out crosses.  What are they but an
untilled soil which will produce nothing but thorns because it
has not been dug up, harrowed and turned over by an
experienced farmer?  They are like stagnant water, which is
unfit for either washing or drinking.
     Carry your cross cheerfully and you will draw from it an
all-powerful strength which none of your enemies will be able
to resist, and you will find in it a delight beyond anything
you have known.  Indeed, brethren, the true earthly paradise
is found in suffering for Christ.
     Ask any of the saints, and they will tell you they have
never tasted a banquet more delicious for the spirit than when
undergoing the severest torments.  "Let all the torments of
the devil come upon me," said St. Ignatius the Martyr.  "Let
me suffer or die," said St. Teresa of Avila.  "Not death but
suffering," said St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi.  "May I suffer
and be despised for your sake," said Blessed John of the
Cross.  And many others have spoken in the same terms, as we
read in their lives.
     My dear brothers and sisters, have faith in the word of
God, for the Holy Spirit tells us that when we suffer
cheerfully for God, the cross is the source of every kind of
joy for all kinds of people.  The joy that comes from the
cross is greater than that of a poor man who suddenly comes
into a fortune, or of a peasant who is raised to the throne;
greater than the joy of a trader who becomes a millionaire;
than of a military leader over the victories he has won; than
of prisoners released from their chains.  In short, imagine
the greatest joy that can be experienced on earth, and then
realise that the happiness of the one who bears his sufferings
in the right way contains, and even surpasses, all of them.

                                   [3. Nothing is so glorious]

35.  So rejoice and be glad when God favours you with one of
his choicest crosses; for without realising it, you are
blessed with the greatest gift of heaven, the greatest gift of
God.  If you really appreciated it, you would have Masses
offered, you would make novenas at the shrines of the saints,
you would undertake long pilgrimages, as did the saints, to
obtain from heaven this divine gift.

36.  The world calls this madness, degradation, stupidity, a
lack of judgement and of common sense.  They are blind: let
them say what they like.  This blindness, which makes them
view the cross in a human and distorted way, is a source of
glory to us.  Every time they cause us to suffer by their
ridicule and insults, they are presenting us with jewels,
setting us on a throne, and crowning us with laurels.

37.  More than that ... as St. John Chrysostom says, "All the
wealth and honours and sceptres and jewelled crowns of kings
and emperors are not to be compared with the splendour of the
cross."  It is greater even than the glory of an apostle or
evangelist.  "If I had the choice," continues this holy man,
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, "I would willingly leave
heaven in order to suffer for the God of heaven.  I would
prefer dungeons and prisons to the thrones of the highest
heaven, and the heaviest of crosses to the glory of the
seraphim.  I value the honour of suffering more than the gift
of miracles, giving me the power to command evil spirits,
shake the elements of the world, halt the sun in its course,
or raise the dead to life.  St. Peter and St. Paul are more
glorious in their prison chains than in being caught up into
the third heaven or receiving the keys of heaven."

38.  Indeed, is it not the Cross which has given to Jesus
Christ "the name which is above all other names, so that all
beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld should
bend the knee at the name of Jesus?"  The glory of one who
knows how to suffer is so great that heaven, angels and men,
and even God himself, gaze on him with joy as a most glorious
sight.  And if the saints in heaven desired anything, it would
be to return to earth so as to bear some crosses.

38.  But if this glory is so great even on earth, what will it
be in heaven?  Who could describe it?  Who could ever
understand fully that eternal weight of glory which a single
moment spent in cheerfully carrying a cross obtains for us? 
Who could understand the glory gained in heaven by a year, and
sometimes a whole lifetime, of crosses and suffering?

40.  You can be sure, my dear Friends of the Cross, that
something wonderful is awaiting you, since the Holy Spirit has
united you so intimately to that which everyone so carefully
avoids.  And you can be sure, too, that God will make of you
as many saints as there are Friends of the Cross if you are
faithful to your vocation and willingly carry your cross as
Christ did.

[D. Let him follow me]

41.  But to suffer is not enough; the evil one and the world
have their martyrs.  We must suffer and carry our cross in the
footsteps of Christ: "Let him follow me," that is to say, we
must suffer the way Jesus did.  To help you to do that, here
are the rules to be followed:

                                          [The fourteen rules]
       [Not to deliberately cause crosses, by one's own fault]

42.  1) Do not deliberately contrive to bring crosses upon
yourself.  We must not do something wrong in order to bring
about something good; nor must we, without a special
inspiration of God, do things badly so as to draw down
ridicule upon ourselves.  Rather we ought to imitate our Lord,
of whom it was said, "He did all things well," not indeed out
of self-esteem or vanity, but to please God and win over our
fellow-men.  And if you fulfil your duties as well as you can,
you will find no lack of opposition, criticism and ridicule,
which will be sent by divine providence without your choosing
or wanting it.

                          [Be aware of one's neighbour's good]

43.  2) If you happen to do something which is neither good
nor bad in itself, and your neighbour takes scandal at it -
although without reason - refrain from doing it, out of
charity to him, so as to avoid the scandal of the weak.  Such
an heroic act of charity will be of greater worth in God's
sight than the action you were doing or intending to do. 
However, if what you are doing is necessary or beneficial to
your neighbour, and some hypocritical or evil-minded person
takes scandal without reason, refer the matter to some prudent
adviser to find out whether it is really necessary or
advantageous to others.  If he judges it is, then carry on
without worrying about what people say, so long as they do not
stop you.  And you can say to them what our Lord said to some
of his disciples when they told him that the scribes and
Pharisees were scandalised at what he said and did: "Leave
them alone.  They are blind men leading the blind."

                      [Admire the sublime virtue of the saints
                           without pretending to attain to it]

44.  3) Although certain great and holy men have sought and
asked for crosses, and even by their peculiar behaviour have
brought sufferings, scorn and humiliations upon themselves,
let us be content with admiring and praising the marvellous
work of the Holy Spirit in their souls.  Let us humble
ourselves at the sight of such sublime virtue without
attempting to reach such heights ourselves.  Compared with
those swift eagles and strong lions, we are timid and faint-
hearted sheep.

                         [Ask God for the wisdom of the cross]

45.  4) You may, and should, pray for the wisdom of the cross,
that knowledge of the truth which we experience within
ourselves and which by the light of faith deepens our
knowledge of the most hidden mysteries, including that of the
cross.  But this is obtained only by much labour, great
humiliations and fervent prayer.  If you stand in need of this
strengthening spirit which enables us to carry the heaviest
crosses courageously; of this gracious and consoling spirit,
which enables us, in the higher part of the soul, to take
delight in things that are bitter and repulsive; of this sound
and upright spirit which seeks God alone; of this science of
the cross which embraces all things; in short, of this
inexhaustible treasure by which those who make good use of it
win God's friendship - if you stand in need of such, pray for
wisdom, ask for it continually and fervently without wavering
or fear of not obtaining it, and it will be yours.  Then you
will clearly understand from your own experience how it is
possible to desire, seek and find joy in the cross.

           [Humble oneself for one's faults, without worrying]

46.  5) If you make a blunder which brings a cross upon you,
whether it be inadvertently or even through your own fault,
bow down under the mighty hand of God without delay, and as
far as possible do not worry over it.  You might say within
yourself, "Lord, here is a sample of my handiwork."  If there
is anything wrong in what you have done, accept the
humiliation as a punishment for it; if it was not sinful,
accept it as a means of humbling your pride.  Frequently, even
very frequently, God allows his greatest servants, those far
advanced in holiness, to fall into the most humiliating faults
so as to humble them in their own eyes and in the eyes of
others.  He thus keeps them from thoughts of pride in which
they might indulge because of the graces they have received,
or the good they are doing, so that "no-one can boast in God's
presence."

                                 [God humbles us to purify us]

47.  6) You must realise that through the sin of Adam and
through the sins we ourselves have committed, everything in us
has become debased, not only our bodily senses, but also the
powers of our soul.  And so the moment our corrupt minds
reflect with self-complacency on any of God's gifts within us,
that gift, that action, that grace becomes tarnished and
spoilt, and God no longer looks on it with favour.  If the
thoughts and reflections of the mind can so spoil man's best
actions and God's greatest gifts, how much worse will be the
evil effects of man's self-will, which are even more corrupt
than those of the mind?
     So we need not be surprised that God is pleased to hide
his friends in the shelter of his presence, that they may not
be defiled by the scrutiny of men or by their own self-
awareness.  And to keep them hidden, what does this jealous
God not permit and even bring about!  How often he humiliates
them!  How many faults he allows them to fall into!  By what
temptations he permits them to be attacked, as St. Paul was! 
In what uncertainty, darkness and perplexity he leaves them! 
Oh, how wonderful is God in his saints, and in the means he
adopts to lead them to humility and holiness!

                    [Avoid the trap of pride in one's crosses]

48.  7) Do not be like those proud and self-conceited church-
goers, imagining that your crosses are heavy, that they are
proofs of your fidelity and marks of God's exceptional love
for you.  This temptation, arising from spiritual pride, is
most deceptive, subtle and full of poison.  You must believe
(1) that your pride and sensitiveness make you magnify
splinters into planks, scratches into wounds, molehills into
mountains, a passing word meaning nothing into an outrageous
insult or a cruel slight; (2) that the crosses God sends you
are loving punishments for your sins rather than marks of
God's special favour; (3) that whatever cross or humiliation
he sends you is exceedingly light in comparison with the
number and the greatness of your offences, for you should
consider your sins in the light of God's holiness, who can
tolerate nothing that is defiled, and against whom you have
set yourself; in the light of a God suffering death while
overwhelmed with sorrow at the sight of your sins; in the
light of an everlasting hell which you have deserved time and
again; (4) that the patience with which you bear your
sufferings is tinged more than you think with natural and
human motives.  Witness those little ways of looking after
yourself, that unobtrusive seeking for sympathy, those
confidences you make in such a natural way to your friends,
and perhaps to your spiritual director, those specious excuses
you are so ready with, those complaints, or rather criticisms
of those who have done you an injury, expressed in such
pleasant words and charitable manner, that keen satisfaction
you feel on considering your troubles, that self-complacency
of Lucifer which makes you imagine you are somebody, and so
on.  I should never finish if I were to describe here all the
twists and turns of human nature, even in suffering.

          [Profit by little sufferings rather than great ones]

49.  8) Take advantage of little sufferings, even more than of
great ones.  God considers not so much what we suffer as how
we suffer.  To suffer a great deal, but badly, is to suffer
like the damned; to suffer much, even bravely, but for an evil
cause, is to suffer as a disciple of the devil; to suffer
little or much for God's sake is to suffer like a saint.
     If it is true to say that we may have a preference for
certain crosses, let it be particularly for small, obscure
ones when they come to us at the same time as great and
spectacular ones.  To seek and ask for great and dazzling
crosses, and even to choose and welcome them, may be the
result of our natural pride; but to choose small and
insignificant ones and bear them cheerfully can only come from
a special grace and a great fidelity to God.  So do what a
shopkeeper does in regard to his business: turn everything to
profit.  Do not allow the tiniest piece of the true Cross to
be lost, even though it be only an insect-sting or a pin-
prick, a little eccentricity of your neighbour or some
unintentional slight, the loss of some money, some little
anxiety, a little bodily weariness, or a slight pain in your
limbs.  Turn everything to profit, as the grocer does in his
shop, and you will soon become rich before God, just as the
grocer becomes rich in money by adding penny to penny in his
till.  At the least annoyance say, "Thank you, Lord.  Your
will be done."  Then store up in God's memory-bank, so to
speak, the profitable cross you have just gained, and think no
more about except to repeat your thanks.

                    [Love crosses, not with an emotional love,
                      but with rational and supernatural love]

50.  9) When we are told to love the cross, that does not
refer to an emotional love, impossible to our human nature.
     There are three kinds of love: emotional love, rational
love, and the supernatural love of faith.  In other words, the
love that resides in the lower part of man, in his body; the
love in the higher part, his reason; and the love in the
highest part of man, in the summit of the soul, that is, the
intelligence enlightened by faith.

51.  God does not ask you to love the cross with the will of
the flesh.  Since the flesh is subject to sin and corruption,
all that proceeds from it is perverted and, of itself, cannot
be submissive to the will of God and his crucifying law.  It
was this human will our Lord referred to in the Garden of
Olives when he cried out, "Father, let your will be done, not
mine."  If the lower part of Christ's human nature, although
so holy, could not love the cross continuously, then with
still greater reason will our tainted nature reject it.  It is
true that we may sometimes experience even a sensible joy in
our sufferings, as many of the saints have done; but that joy
does not come from the body, even though it is experienced in
the body.  It comes from the soul, which is so overwhelmed
with the divine joy of the Holy Spirit that it overflows into
the body.  In that way, someone who is suffering greatly can
say with the psalmist, "My heart and my flesh ring out their
joy to God, the living God."

52   There is another love of the cross which I have called
rational love and which is in the higher part of man, the
mind.  This love is entirely spiritual; it springs from the
knowledge of how happy we can be in suffering for God, and so
it can be experienced by the soul, to which it gives interior
joy and strength.  But although this rational and perceptible
joy is good, in fact, excellent, it is not always necessary in
order to suffer joyfully for God's sake.

53.  And so there is a third kind of love, which is called by
the masters of the spiritual life the love of the summit of
the soul, and which is known to philosophers as the love of
the intellect.  In this, without any feeling of joy in the
senses or pleasure in the mind, we love the cross we are
carrying, by the light of pure faith, and take delight in it,
even though the lower part of our nature may be in a state of
conflict and disturbance, groaning and complaining, weeping
and longing for relief.  In this case, we can say with our
Lord, "Father, let your will be done, not mine;" or with our
Lady, "I am the slave of the Lord: let what you have said be
done to me."
     It is with one of these two higher loves that we should
love and accept the cross.

                                 [Suffer all sorts of crosses,
                         without exception and without choice]

54.  10) My dear Friends of the Cross, make the resolution to
suffer any kind of cross without excluding or choosing any:
any poverty, injustice, loss, illness, humiliation,
contradiction, slander, spiritual dryness, desolation,
interior and exterior trials, saying always, "My heart is
ready, O God, my heart is ready."  Be prepared, then, to be
forsaken by men and angels, and seemingly by God himself; to
be persecuted, envied, betrayed, slandered, discredited and
abandoned by everyone; to suffer hunger, thirst, poverty,
nakedness, exile, imprisonment, the gallows, and all kinds of
torture, even though you have done nothing to deserve it.
     Finally, imagine that you have been deprived of your
possessions and your good name, and turned out of your home,
like Job and St. Elizabeth of Hungary; that you are thrown
into the mire, like St. Elizabeth, or dragged onto the dung
heap, like Job, all covered with ulcers, without a bandage for
your sores or a piece of bread to eat - something people would
not refuse to a horse or a dog.  Imagine that, in addition to
all these dreadful misfortunes, God leaves you a prey to every
assault of the devil, without imparting to your soul the least
feeling of consolation.
     You should firmly believe that this is the highest point
of heavenly glory and of genuine happiness for the true and
perfect Friend of the Cross.

                      [Four considerations for suffering well]

55.  11) To help you to suffer in the right spirit, acquire
the good habit of reflecting on these four points:
                                           [a. The eye of God]
     Firstly, the eye of God, who, like a great king from the
height of a tower, observes with satisfaction his soldier in
the midst of battle, and praises his courage.  What is it that
attracts God's attention on earth?  Is it kings and emperors
on their thrones?  He often regards them only with contempt. 
Is it great victories of armies, precious stones, or whatever
is great in the eyes of men?  No, "what is thought highly of
by men is loathsome in the sight of God."  What, then, does he
look upon with pleasure and satisfaction, and about which he
inquires of the angels and even the devils?  It is the one who
is struggling with the world, the devil, and himself for the
love of God, the one who carries his cross cheerfully.  As the
Lord said to Satan, "Did you not see on earth a great wonder,
at which all heaven is filled with admiration?  Have you seen
my servant Job, who is suffering for my sake?"

                                          [b. The hand of God]
56.  Secondly, consider the hand of God.  All natural evils
which befall us, from the smallest to the greatest, come from
the hand of God.  The same hand that killed an army of a
hundred thousand men on the spot also causes a leaf to fall
from the tree and a hair from your head; the hand which
pressed so heavily on Job gently touches you with a light
tribulation.  It is the same hand which makes both day and
night, sunshine and darkness, good and evil.  He has permitted
the sinful actions which hurt you; he is not the cause of
their malice, but he permits the actions.
     If anyone, then, treats you as Shimei treated King David,
heaping you with insults and throwing stones at you, say to
yourself, "We must not take revenge.  Let him carry on, for
the Lord has commanded him to act in this way.  I know I
deserve every kind of insult, and that it is only right that
God should punish me.  My hands, keep yourselves from
violence; refrain, my tongue, from speaking; do not strike, do
not say a word.  It is true this man attacks me, that woman
reviles me, but they are God's representatives, who have come
on behalf of his mercy to punish me as his love alone knows
how.  Let us not offend his justice by usurping his rights to
vengeance.  Let us not slight his mercy by resisting the
loving strokes of his lash, lest he should deliver me,
instead, to the absolute justice of eternity."
     On the one hand, God in his infinite power and wisdom
bears you up, while with the other he afflicts you.  With one
hand he deals out death, while with the other he dispenses
life.  He humbles you to the dust and raises you up, and with
both arms he reaches from one end of your life to the other
with kindness and power; with kindness, by not allowing you to
be tempted and afflicted beyond your strength; with power, by
supporting you with his grace in proportion to the violence
and duration of the temptation or affliction; with power
again, by coming himself, as he tells us through his holy
Church, "to support you on the edge of the precipice, to guide
you on the uncertain road, to shade you in the scorching heat,
to protect you in the drenching rain and biting cold, to carry
you in your weariness, to aid you in your difficulties, to
steady you on slippery paths, to be your refuge in the midst
of storms" (Prayer for a Journey).

            [c. The wounds and sufferings of Christ crucified]
57.  Thirdly, reflect on the wounds and sufferings of Christ
crucified.  He himself has told us, "All you who pass by the
way" of thorns and the cross, "look and see."  Look with the
eyes of your body, and see through the eyes of your
contemplation, whether your poverty, destitution, disgrace,
sorrow, desolation are like mine; look upon me who am
innocent, and lament, you who are guilty!
     The Holy Spirit tells us, through the Apostles, to
contemplate the crucified Christ.  He bids us arm ourselves
with this thought, for it is the most powerful and formidable
weapon against our enemies.  When you are assailed by poverty,
disrepute, sorrow, temptation, and other crosses, arm
yourselves with the shield, breastplate, helmet and two-edged
sword, which is the remembrance of Christ crucified.  It is
there you will find the solution of every problem and the
means to conquer all your enemies.

                                 [d. Heaven above; hell below]
58.  Fourthly, look upwards and see the beautiful crown that
awaits you in heaven if you carry your cross well.  It was
this reward which sustained the patriarchs and prophets in
their faith and persecutions; which inspired the apostles and
martyrs in their labours and torments.  The patriarchs could
say with Moses, "We would rather be afflicted with the people
of God, and be happy with him forever, than enjoy for a time
the pleasures of sin."  And the prophets could say with David,
"We suffer persecution for the reward."  The apostles and
martyrs could say with St. Paul, "We are as men sentenced to
death, put on show in front of the whole universe, angels as
well as men, by our suffering, and as the offal of the world,
the scum of the earth, for the sake of a weight of eternal
glory, which this small and temporary suffering will produce
in us."
     Let us look upwards and see the angels, who exclaim, "Be
careful not to forfeit the crown which is marked out for the
cross you have received, if you bear it well.  If you do not
bear it well, another will carry it in the right spirit and
will take your crown with it.  Fight bravely and suffer
patiently, we are told by all the saints, and you will receive
an eternal kingdom."  Finally, listen to our Lord himself, who
says to you, "I will give my reward only to the one who
suffers and is victorious through his patience."
     Now let us look downward to the place we have deserved
and which awaits us in hell in the company of the bad thief
and all who have not repented, if we suffer as they did, with
feelings of resentment, ill-will and revengefulness.  Let us
say with St. Augustine, "Lord, treat me as you will in this
world for my sins, so long as you pardon them in eternity."

                            [Never complain against creatures]

59.  12) Never willingly complain against any person or thing
that God may use to afflict you.  There are three kinds of
complaints we may make in times of distress.  The first is
natural and spontaneous, as when the body groans and
complains, weeps and laments.  There is no fault in this,
provided, as I have said, that the heart is resigned to the
will of God.  The second kind of complaint is that of the
mind, as when we make known our ills to someone who can give
us some relief, such as a doctor or a superior.  There may be
some imperfection in this if we are too eager to tell our
troubles, but there is no sin in it.  The third kind is
sinful:  that is when we criticise our neighbour either to get
rid of an evil which afflicts us or to take revenge on him; or
when we wilfully complain of what we suffer with impatience
and murmuring.

                        [Accept the cross only with gratitude]

60.  13) Whenever you receive any cross, always welcome it
with humility and gratitude.  And when God favours you with a
cross of some importance, show your gratitude in a special
way, and get others to thank him for you.  Follow the example
of the poor woman who lost all that she had in an unjust law-
suit and immediately offered her few remaining coins to have a
Mass said in thanksgiving for her good fortune.

                              [Take up some voluntary crosses]

61.  14) If you want to make yourself worthy of the best kind
of crosses, that is, those which come to you without your
choosing, then under the guidance of a prudent director, take
up some of your own accord.
     For example, suppose you have a piece of furniture you
are fond of, but which is of no use to you.  You could give it
away to someone who needs it, saying to yourself, "Why should
I have things I don't need when Jesus is so poor?'
     Or if you have a distaste for a certain kind of food, an
aversion for the practice of some particular virtue, or a
dislike for some offensive odour, you could take the food,
practice the virtue, accept the odour, and thus conquer
yourself.
     Or again, your fondness for a certain person or thing may
be immoderate.  Why not see less of that person, or keep away
from those things that attract you?
     If you have a natural inclination never to miss what is
going on, to be always doing things, to be in the limelight,
to frequent popular places, then guard your eyes, watch your
tongue, and stay where you are.
     Have you a natural aversion for certain persons or
things?  Then overcome it by not avoiding them.

62.  If you are truly Friends of the Cross, then, without your
knowing it, love, which is ever ingenious, will discover
thousands of little crosses to enrich you.  And you will not
need to have any fear of vainglory, which so often spoils the
patience which people exhibit under spectacular crosses.  And
because you have been faithful in little things, the Lord will
place you in charge of greater, according to his promise. 
That is to say, in charge of the greater graces he will bestow
on you, of the greater crosses he will send you, of the
greater glory he will prepare for you....
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