We are given the gift of hope and are not meant to live in hopelessness. So much of our suffering comes from our inability to surrender ourselves and be united and aligned with our creator.
United to Jesus in Our Own “Appointed Times”
Lord, let me receive the cross gladly; let me recognize your cross in mine, and that of the whole world in yours.
Do not let me shut my eyes to the magnitude of the world’s sorrow or to the suffering of those nearest to me. Do not let me shrink from accepting my share in that which is too big for me, and do not let me fail in sympathy for that which seems trivial.
Let me realize that because you have made my suffering yours and given it the power of your love, it can reach everyone, everywhere—those in my own home, those who seem to be out of my reach—it can reach them all with your healing and your love.
Let me always remember that those sufferings known only to myself, which seem to be without purpose and without meaning, are part of your plan to redeem the world.
Make me patient to bear the burdens of those nearest at hand, to welcome inconvenience for them, frustration because of them. Let me accept their temperaments as they are, nurse them in sickness, share with them in poverty, enter into their sorrows with them.
Teach me to accept myself—my own temperament, my temptations, my limitations, my failures, the humiliation of being myself, as I am.
Allow me, Lord, all my life long to accept both small suffering and great suffering, certain that both, through your love, are redeeming the world.
And in communion with all men, and above all with you, let me accept joyfully death and the fear of death—my death and the deaths of those whom I love—not with my will but with yours, knowing that you have changed sorrow into joy, and that you have changed death to life.
Caryll Houselander, Magnificat, Wednesday of Holy Week (April 13, 2022)
Thank You, Lord for the gift of hope and allowing me to walk with You during my appointed time.
Smitten With Goodness 