In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful my immaculate

mother st. Joseph my father and lord my guardian angel and tocede for an understandable reaction

to jesus exhort, to become a follower of His, is that of fear.

Because the raw material of the cross

obviously is any form of suffering.

Mental suffering

that comes in the form of emotional disturbance, dark night of soul that could come in the form of a depression,

moral suffering of feeling alone, feeling shame, humiliation, sense of failure, fatigue, physical pain.

That's all the raw material of the cross

and an understandable reaction is that of fear

and what could add to being disconcerted is the collective attitude the saints have towards the cross.

Now it's important to say towards the cross and not use the word suffering.

Suffering and the cross are not synonymous. Right. use the word suffering.

Suffering and the cross are not synonymous

even though they're connected.

A pleasure is not a cross.

But

suffering is not

necessarily a cross.

...