June, devotion to the Sacred Heart: today's meditation June 3

June 3 - THE CROWN OF THORNS
- If you observe the Divine Heart, you feel a feeling of pain. He is pierced in the middle, surrounded by thorns, dripping with blood. It is the symbol of the life of Jesus. Born in the midst of suffering, he embraces pain, holds a cross, takes it to Calvary, And dies crucified.

Jesus values ​​pain and forms a school for it. He puts it under the figure of the cross and then tells us: - Whoever wants to come after me, take up his cross (Mt 16,24). It's a bit sad, a bit bitter word, repulsive to human nature, but that's the way it is. Christian pain is given to purify, to sanctify souls.

Look at the Saints; they had but a sigh ... the sigh of the cross, the thirst for sufferings.

In front of two crowns, one of lilies and the other of thorns, presented to her by her Guardian Angel, St. Gemma Galgani does not hesitate in choosing: - I want that of Jesus. Here is the joy of the Saints. The madness of the cross! Here is the question and the gift of Jesus to all those souls who want to follow him, love him, repair him. - See if you have a cross. No cross on earth, no crown in heaven. And how do you carry your cross? Do you bring it together with Jesus, calmly, with resignation, with joy? Or you drag it grumbling, chewing bitter. Do you get used to seeing Jesus in sufferings? Are you looking for Jesus in the troubles, in the pains of every day, of every hour?

Do not say that your cross is too heavy, greater than your strength! Every evil has its pains; each cross has its torments. Do you think that God does not know your strength?

The cross He gives you is the one that is right for you. Try to have devotion to your cross; love her as the Saints loved her, as Jesus loved her. Just think that that Cross which one day was cursed on Calvary, today is incensed and adored on all altars.

- Never complain about your cross, neither at home nor outside. Speak, suffer with Him. Only at the foot of the Crucifix or the Tabernacle do you give vent. It will be the weeping of faith, the washing of repentance. Remember that more is acquired in a single day of sufferings that come to us from God from our neighbor, than in ten years of sufferings chosen by us. Go up to Calvary with Jesus and in the hour of agony, when you place in his hands that cross that was your sweet companion in life, you will hear from him that consoling word: - Rejoice, good and faithful servant! You were faithful in the little, but I want to exalt you in the much. Enter the joy of your Lord!