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 I MUST IN A LITTLE TIME GO TO GOD

A letter written in old age 

I do not pray that you may be delivered from your pains, but I pray God earnestly that He would give you strength and patience to bear them as long as He pleases.   Comfort yourself with Him who holds you fastened to the cross. He will loose you when He thinks fit.  Happy those who suffer with Him.  Accustom yourself to suffer in that manner and seek from Him the strength to endure as much, and as long,as He shall judge to be necessary for you. The men of the world do not comprehend these truths, nor is it to be wondered at, since they suffer like what they are, and not like  Christians. They consider sickness as a pain to nature, and not as a favor from God; and seeing it only in that light, they find nothing in it but grief and stress. But those who consider sickness as coming from the hand of God, as the effect of His mercy, and the means which He employs for their salvation—such commonly find in it great sweetness and sensible consolation.

I wish you could convince yourself that God is often (in some sense) nearer to us, and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health. Rely upon no other physician; for, according to my apprehension, He reserves your cure to Himself.  Put , then, all your trust in Him, and you will soon find the effects of it in your recovery, which we often retard by putting greater confidence in physique than in God.

Whatever remedies you make use of, they will succeed only so far as He permits. Whey pains come from God, He only can cure them. He often sends diseases of the body to cure those of the soul. Comfort yourself with the sovereign Physician both of the soul and body.

Be satisfied with the condition in which God places you: however happy you may think me, I envy you. Pains and suffering would be a paradise to me while I should suffer with my God, and the greatest pleasures would be hell to me if I could relish them without Him.  All my consolation would be to suffer something for His sake.

I must in a little time, go to God. What comforts me in this life is that I now see Him by faith; and I see Him in such a manner as might make me say sometimes, I believe no more, but I see. I feel what faith teaches us, and in that assurance and that practice of faith I will live and die with Him.

Continue, then always with God; it is the only support and comfort for your affliction.  I shall beseech Him to be with you.  I present my service.—Brother Lawrence

Arise From Darkness 

By Father Benedict Groeschel