"Faith Hope & Charity" by Louis Comfort Tiffany

I'm reading an excellent book called "In Pursuit of Perfection" written by Charles Hugo Doyle.  This book was written in 1954 for religious to be used during retreats.  It wasn't released to the public until 1955 and was only available to priests and other clergy through the publisher for the first year.

It covers topics such as living the "common life", sharp tongues and lack of charity.  It is written in a very readable form and I'm learning many things from it some of which I'm going to share with you.

The chapter I'm in now is called "In All Things - Charity".  He expounds on St. Paul's Scripture  verses on charity line by line. (Charity is patient, kind etc.....)  Under the phrase "Charity beareth all things" he lists 5 causes of sufferings common to all men, independent of their will, but highly meritorious if accepted properly.  We probably all know these but it was so good to see them in an outline form.  Here they are:

1.  The first consists in the assaults of the weather:  extreme cold, excessive heat, violent storms, humidity, dryness, floods, earthquakes, etc.  Such trials very often strengthen faith in recalling to mind the sovereign dominion of God.  One day Maria Diaz complained to Our Lord about the rigors of the weather at Avila, and He replied: "It is I who made it and you complain!"

2.  Many sufferings arise from the necessities of our weak nature, such as hunger, thirst, fatigue, sickness, etc.  which God makes use of, to punish our sins and to increase our virtue.

3.  Many pains arise from the clash of personalities in those called to live together in the common life:  the quarrelsome, the bad-humored, the gloomy, the phlegmatic, etc.  God makes use of the weaknesses of others to try the virtue of the saintly.

4.  Not the least in the list of sufferings are those that come to us by way of insults, contempt, false accusations, misunderstandings, etc.

5.  Finally, we have the spiritual sufferings that one meets in the service of God, such as aridity, scruples, distractions, temptations, and persecutions from the devil.

After having enumerated the five general causes of sufferings, Father Balthazar Alvarez encouraged Maria Diaz to make the best possible use of the trials and sufferings God sent her.  How well she absorbed the lesson may be seen from the fact that at the age of eighty, and after a life of intense suffering, she replied to St. Teresa, who had just expressed an ardent desire to die:  "And I," said Maria, "prefer to remain here on earth and suffer as much as God wills, for while we are here on this earth we can, by accepting suffering, give something to God while in heaven we can do nothing but receive the recompense for our sufferings."

Ironically, this book ended on the "discarded" pile of whatever library it was in.  Thankfully, it's been rescued and hopefully will be a little help in our struggle to attain happiness in heaven!