Take up your cross

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of Charity A Gift for God: prayers and meditations

"Let him take up his cross daily and follow me"Lord, help us to see in your crucifixion and resurrection an example of how to endure and seemingly to die in the agony and conflict of daily life, so that we may live more fully and creatively. You accepted patiently and humbly the rebuffs of human life, as well as the tortures of your crucifixion and passion. Help us to accept the pains and conflicts that come to us each day as opportunities to grow as people and become more like you. Enable us to go through them patiently and bravely, trusting that you will support us. Make us realize that it is only by frequent deaths of ourselves and our self-centred desires that we can come to live more fully; for it is only by dying with you that we can rise with you.

Lord help us to take up our cross, like those before us, especially Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, that we may accept all the sufferings of our lives with Love. Let us follow your example, Dear Lord, through the cross to Easter morning.