Suffering Heightens Self-Awareness

This is not necessarily a good effect of suffering. But, one must turn it into a positive through prayer and love. One must at times force the suffering outward, to turn it to Jesus who is without and within, as we are within His Sacred Heart.

Jesus is without among human beings all over the earth; and He is within their souls, knows their minds, and is aware of their emotions and actions. As He is with ours.

So in time of suffering, such as today when the pain is even affecting the feet very much, and there is gardening to do and watering of the Samaritan Dogwood whose leaves are withering from too much wind in a recent planting, the pain is offered to Jesus for all the thoughts of others, for their souls, for the Church, for the confessor who this morning took time to listen, to advise, and to gently lead the soul into some self-awareness that was positive.

The positive aspect was the fact of the sense of too much self--too much self-awareness. Too much selfish sensitivity. From a negative can come a positive, and the positive must remain a force to push upward and out, like the perennials beginning to peek through the warming soil, or the buds on the Jeanne d'Arc Rose of Sharon, thankfully showing signs of life when a week ago it was feared to be martyred by the winter judgment.

For any who would think a Victim Soul of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ever comes to a point of suffering well, of suffering selflessly, of having it all together and pert-near all the answers: Not so. The suffering creeps in like weeds whose roots were never totally expunged, or like weeds whose roots were yanked fully out, but the seeds had already dropped for more weedlets to grow. The Victim Soul of the Sacred Heart must be a diligent weeder as well as a persevering gardener. What flowers can bloom or leaves unfold if the soil is overrun by weeds?

Yet, the weeds persist until the gardener is no more, and they persist for the next gardeners.

The over-the-counter pain medication, doubled up, is helping some, and this victim soul must bundle up to the wind and chill of this May day, and return to a pathway to be planted in ground cover called "Green Carpet." It is said that green is the color of hope.

It is hoped that this victim soul will pray much for others, offer every ounce of added pain radiating from tendrilled nerves, to Jesus for His use with the billions of souls living and dead with whom He resides--many of whom reside in Him.

For pain of all types can draw one inward to self, and that self can choke charity, and that self can reap negativity in a quick-wilting effect. One must create room for the cross to grow in a healthy manner, and the best soil is that within the Sacred Heart.