The "Little Way" through Suffering

Today I was fortunate enough to be an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist at a nursing home near my parish. These are people who are only about to attend Mass once a month but through a wonderful ministry in my parish they are able to receive the Eucharist and pray as a community once a week. I was surprised to find out that I had prepared the wrong readings for our prayer service we had so I had to think of a brand new reflection on the spot, however, the Holy Spirit was with me and guided all of us through a great discussion that I wish to share here. The readings we read were for this coming Sunday (Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time) where St. Paul asks God to help him overcome the thorns in his side coming from the devil, to which God replies "You have all the graces you need." In the Gospel Jesus is confronted by many people who do not have any faith in who he is and because of their lack of faith Christ is not able to help them. As I was reading these out loud I couldn't help but think of the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux. St. Therese left us many gifts, including her Little Way. St. Therese offers us, within her Little Way, a practical formula for coping with pain and suffering. Rather than allow herself to be overwhelmed by her pain, she focused only on the moment at hand, praying for the patience and strength to move through it.

"If I did not simple suffer from one moment to another, it would be impossible for me to be patient; but I look only at the present moment [and] forget the past; and I take good care not to forestall the future." Therese wisely points out that we tent to magnify our suffering when we project it into the unknown future, or dwell on suffering from the past. Instead, Therese was able to draw strength from her confidence that God would provide the grace she needed at any given moment.

"God gives me courage in proportion to my sufferings. I feel at this moment I couldn't suffer any more, but I'm not afraid, since if they increase, He will increase my courage at the same time." We, too, can have confidence knowing that while a cure or instant relief for our pain or suffering may not be at hand, we can turn to God for the courage we feel is lacking. And when the strength to do more fails us, we can simply offer our suffering to God, as Therese did. And just as the Lord told St. Paul "You have all the graces you need." God always provides us with the graces and tools needed to deal with temptation, weakness, suffering, etc. We just have to have faith, unlike those Jesus encountered in the Gospel and could not help, and God will provide us with the graces and tools we need. It is my continued prayer, through the intercession of St. Therese, that we always remember to have faith in God and seek his graces and blessings at all times.