I know I've mentioned this concept before, but I need to hear it again. :) St. John of the Cross says that most of our sufferings stem from our attachment to the goods of this earth. Stop and think about it: on what occasion were you most recently upset? Angry? Frustrated? Furious even? Desperately sad? Think about whether it can be traced to being too attached to something or someone - even if that something was just "my own way." (*guilty)

Now, if we are detached from earthly things, and leave all in God's Hands, trusting Him to dispose everything the way He sees fit, then we are like the one described below:

"Wherefore, not having his heart placed on the things of this earth, he participates not of their instability. Poverty, humiliations, mortifications and sufferings, while they spare him not, do not conquer, debase, or deject him. Dear reader, have you seriously reflected on this? Would you not, by devoutly meditating on these truths, have been spared the greater part of your tribulations?"

~ Rev. Hilary Maurice Vigo, The Immaculate Conception: The History, Trials and Triumphs of the Work of God at Lourdes, 1878.

(The Basilica at Lourdes, France)