HOW TO BENEFIT FROM SUFFERING

How to Benefit from suffering:

The church teaches us from the Bible that in all things God works for good with those who love him (Rom 8:28). This simply means that with those who love God, He brings out good things or makes all things favourable for them at the end, no matter what they encounter. It is because for such people all things are good (sometimes in disguise) that St. Paul says that thanks should be given to God in every situation. This is only applicable to those who love God. There is no bad thing  or misfortune for such people. It is only with such people that the saying that “every disappointment is a blessing”holds true.

Because all things are good and a blessing for those who love God, the first thing to do if we encounter any form of suffering is to check ourselves inwardly and see whether we qualify to be described as one of those who love God. What is the state of our soul? Are we in a state of grace. That is, do we have any mortal sin in our soul? Will God be pleased and happy if He looks into us and sees the state of our souls?

The bible makes it clear in several places that those   who  love  God  keep His commandants. “If you love me, keep my commandments”. So said Jesus in John 14:15.

If we want to benefit from our suffering therefore, the first thing is to check our souls, repent and go to confess our sins if we are not in a state of grace, and resolve to obey or keep all commandments of God and His church.

Having put ourselves in a condition in which we are seen as loving God by keeping His commandments, then we qualify to be grouped among those for whom all things will work for their good, including the suffering that has just come upon us. This suffering will now be turned by God into blessing for us, because in all things, He continues to work for the good of all those who love Him.

The next thing is to do what St. Paul says we should do in all things (whether good or bad): Give thanks and Glory to God, because we are being blessed in these suffering since we are among those who “love God”. (Ephesians 5:20).

What now happens is that God will use our suffering to bring about some good for us and also for others who are dear to us; And we begin to thank Him because we know and believe that He is doing so, and we are gathering and drawing some benefits for the Lord is good all the time.

Next is to unite in spirit whatever we are suffering with the suffering of Jesus at Calvary, and offer it to God as a sacrifice. Offering our suffering to God as a sacrifice transforms that suffering into a very powerful prayer. To unite this sacrifice with the sacrifice that Jesus offered to God the father at Calvary now lifts that sacrifice of ours up to the level of the most pleasing sacrifice that can be offered to God, because it has been united with that of Jesus. When the reward for this big United sacrifice comes, we find ourselves wondering what we have done to deserve such wonderful favours from God. We should therefore never let any of our suffering go unutilized. We should offer them up to God always so that He blesses us as if we have offered a very powerful prayer to Him.

We remember that the most powerful prayer on earth is the mass, because it is the sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus at Calvary being re-enacted.

The next most powerful prayer is the Rosary, because it is the only prayer in the whole world composed by the three persons of the most Blessed Trinity Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and was not made by any human instrument. (St Louis de Montfort).

The prayers of the Rosary comprise principally the“Our Father”… dictated by God the son Jesus Christ; (Luke11:12)

– the “Hail Mary”… dictated by  God the Father through Archangel Gabriel (Luke 1:28)

-“Blessed   are  you  among  women…” dictated by God the Holy Spirit through Elizabeth (Luke 1:42-48)

Other things that make the Rosary the second most powerful prayer on earth, next to the prayer of Jesus Himself (Mass), is that the first Rosary that was seen on this earth and from which all others were copied, was created by God in heaven, handed over by Him to the Blessed Virgin Mary who brought it down to this earth on the 16th of July 1208AD in the company of three of Her angels. She handed it over to St. Dominic, then a reverend father working in the Parish of Toulouse, France. It came as a response to the fervent prayers of this priest for a way to bring about the conversion of hard-hearted  Albigensian  Pagans  who  had refused to accept our Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour in spite of all that he had done to convert them to Christianity.

In his Book, THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY, St. Louis Montfort narrates that, upon appearing to St. Dominic, the Blessed Virgin spoke the following words:

“Dear Dominic do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the World?”

“Oh, my lady” answered Dominic. “You know far better than I do because next to your son, Jesus Christ, you have always been the Chief Instrument of our salvation”

Then Mary replied:

“ I want you to know that in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter (the Hail Mary) which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore, if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter”

At this, she presented the Rosary to him. Next, she began to teach him how to use it to

pray; and with the help of a little book she also came with, she showed him the pictures of the mysteries of the Rosary as described in the Holy Bible, and how we should meditate on them as we recite   the prayers. After this first introduction of the Rosary into our world, God had also permitted that some Rosaries be dropped from heaven upon the crowd that had gathered at some places where the Blessed Virgin Mary was making Apparitions, and those who picked those Rosaries must still be having them in their possession.

Common  reasoning       tells       us      that something that the creator of all things decided to create in heaven and send down like rainfall upon a crowd for their use must be something very special,powerful and holy.