TRIALS, EFFORT AND VIRTUES.

Our life cannot be without sorrow, pain or worry. Nobody can expect to go through life without them. Nevertheless,  a Christian can bring out a lot of good from life’s difficulties, if he or she knows how to take advantage of them with the help of God’s grace.

We cannot make the mistake which Saint Gregory the Great described as follows:

There are some who wish to be humble, but without being despised, who wish to be happy with their lot, but without being needy, who wish to be chaste, without mortifying the body, to be patient without suffering. They want both to acquire virtues and to avoid the sacrifices those virtues involve: they are like soldiers who flee the battlefield and try to win the war from the comfort of the city (St Gregory the Great, Moralia, 7,28, 34). 

Sorrow, pain, worries…life’s difficulties, whatever they may be are occasions not only to grow in virtues but also to convert these situations into prayer, when we offer them to Our Lord as sacrifice, and when we bear them joyfully with trust in and love for God.

If we are to acquire virtues, we must be ready to exert effort and face the trials which God sends us seeing in them as our daily “cross” which we will carry for Christ.

Fr. Rolly Arjonillo